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An  Apology  for  the 
Common  English  Bible 


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FOR    THE 


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=     MAY  Z'6  laii    .1 
AN    APOLOGX/.     _  ^ 


FOR    THE 

Cammon  (IFnglisI)  Bible; 

AND 

A   REVIEW 

OF  THE  EXTRAORDINARY  CHANGES 
MADE  IN   IT   BY   MANAGERS 

OF    THE 

AMERICAN  BIBLE  SOCIETY. 

NO  MAN  PUTTETH  A.  PIECE   OF  NEW  CLOTH    UNTO  AN  OLD   GARMENT:   FOR 
THAT  WHICH  IS  PUT  IN  TO  FILL  IT  UP,  TAKETH  FROM  THE  GARMENT. 

S.  Matt.  rs.  16. 


Tiaill^ID    E3DITIOIT- 


BALTIMORE: 
JOSEPH   ROBINSON. 

NEW  YORK  : 
DANA  AND  COMPANY. 

1857. 


PRINTED  BY 
JOS.   ROBINSON, 

BALTIMORE. 


PREFACE 


The  writer  of  the  following  pages  has  not  endeavoured  to  con- 
ceal his  religious  convictions  as  a  Churchman,  but,  at  the  same 
time,  he  has  preferred  to  make  his  objections  to  the  work  set 
forth  in  the  name  of  the  American  Bible  Society,  on  grounds 
which  he  believes  are  common  to  all  who  believe  in  the  Trinity 
and  the  Atonement.  He  writes,  in  no  respect,  as  a  partisan, 
but  as  one  who  desires  to  see  the  pure  Word  of  God  made  the 
lasting  possession  of  all  his  countrymen. 

A.  C.  C. 
Baltimore,  January,  1857. 


The  writer  avails  himself  of  the  opportunity  of  a  Third  Edi- 
tion, to  express  his  sense  of  obligation  to  the  Eight  Reverend 
the  Bishop  of  Pennsylvania,  and  other  respected  members  of 
the  A.  B.  Society,  who,  while  they  cherish  a  strong  affection 
for  the  Society  itself,  have  yielded  a  cordial  support  to  his 
effort  to  rescue  the  Common  English  Bible  from  irresponsible 
emendation. 

He  is  also  indebted  to  some  of  his  antagonists  for  the  courtesy 
of  their  rejoinders ;  and  to  others,  for  enabling  him  to  make  his 
work  more  complete,  by  availing  himself  of  several  of  the 
minute  criticisms,  to  which  they  have  thought  proper  to  limit 
the  range  of  their  replies. 

To  those  who  have  dwelt  upon  the  great  merits  of  the  So- 
ciety's new  Standard,  as  entitling  it  to  universal  adoption,  it 
need  only  be  answered,  that  if  such  be  the  grounds  on  which 
it  is  to  be  supported,  the  Society  will  do  well  to  publish  the 
work  hereafter,  with  its  entire  claims  to  preference  expressed 
upon  the  title-page.  Its  real  value  is  not  defined  by  the  title 
actually  employed,  which  might  lead  many  to  suppose  it  noth- 
ing more  than  the  work  as  left  by  Dr.  Blayney  :  whereas,  its 
genuine  character  might  be  stated  as  follows :  "  The  Holy 
Bible,  being  the  text  of  the  Received  English  Version,  Revised, 
Improved,  punctuated  anew,  furnished  with  original  and  criti- 
cal headings,  a  selection  of  references,  divers  marginal  notes 
and  alterations,  a  new  Orthography,  a  correction  of  archaisms, 
and  a  restoration  of  proper  names  in  the  N.  T.  to  their  original 

forms  in  the  Old  Testament,  &c.,  &c.,  &c.,  by ,  Pastor 

of  the  First  Preshijterian  Church,  WilUamsburgh,  L.  /.,  with 


IV 

the  assistance  of  the  Committee  on  Versions  of  the  A.  B.  S., 
&c.,  &c.,  &c."  Let  the  work  be  thus  fairly  furnished  with  a 
statement  of  its  full  claims  to  reception,  as  exhibited  in  the  So- 
ciety's reports,  and  the  writer  will  be  content  to  leave  the  issue 
to  the  conscience  of  the  Christian  community. 

There  are  some  who  affect  to  regard  the  whole  matter  as  of 
very  little  importance ;  but  no  course  could  be  adopted  more 
fatal  to  their  own  credit  as  Biblical  scholars,  or  to  the  cause  of 
the  Society,  Every  body  at  all  familiar  with  the  nature  of  Bib- 
Ucal  questions,  and  with  the  history  of  Bible  translations  and 
editions,  must  feel  that  the  single  change  adopted  by  the  Society 
in  the  text  of  Rev.  xiii.  8,  is  a  sufficient  ground  for  the  rejection 
of  their  book,  as  unsound,  and  unfaithful  to  the  Version  it  pro- 
fesses to  follow  :  while,  if  the  matter  be  of  so  little  importance, 
how  shall  the  Society  justify  the  shock  it  has  gratuitously  occa- 
sioned to  the  harmless  prejudices  of  thousands  of  Christians, 
who  prefer  the  Bible  as  they  have  known  it  heretofore  ? 

With  regard  to  the  headings,  the  writer  has  been  pleased  to 
observe  that  popular  indifference  is  by  no  means  so  considerable 
as  has  been  imagined.  But  efforts  have  been  made  to  represent 
them  as  mere  "  printer's  matter,"  and  a  few  faulty  ones  have 
been  gleaned  out,  and  set  forth  to  mystify  the  true  issue.  The 
very  words  of  Dr.  Blayney  have  been  added,  therefore,  to  the 
Apology,  in  proof  of  the  great  care  and  erudition  bestowed  on 
this  part  of  the  work,  in  1769  :  and  the  writer  would  also 
strengthen  his  position  by  a  reference  to  the  fact,  that  the  Penn- 
sylvania Bible  Society  of  1810,  which  was  honoured  by  the  ad- 
hesion of  Bishop  White,  and  which  represented  the  known 
views  of  the  fomiders  of  the  A.  B.  Society,  in  such  matters,  ex- 
pressly provides  that  the  Bibles  to  be  circulated  under  their 
charter,  "  shall  contain  no  other  additions  to  the  text  of  the 
Scriptures  than  the  contents,  (headings)  of  the  chapters,  margi- 
nal references,  and  the  tables  of  kindred,  weights  and  measures, 
iLSuaily  jniblished  with  the  Bible." 

In  short,  then,  these  facts  remain  unrefuted  :  That  the  A,  B. 
Society  cannot  tamper  ^vith  the  Common  English  Bible  without 
violating  the  pledge  of  its  Constitution  ;  That  there  is  not  the 
shadow  of  an  excuse  for  any  attempt  at  improvement,  seeing 
that  the  Version,  and  its  accessories,  as  corrected  in  1769,  are  to 
be  found,  in  the  Standard  English  Edition,  in  a  state  of  the 
highest  accuracy,  and  of  entire  fitness  for  use ;  and.  That,  the 
Society  has  nevertheless  employed  its  funds  in  issuing,  at  great 
expense,  a  spurious  work,  which  it  proposes  to  circulate  exclu- 
sively, and  in  place  of  that  which  its  Constitution  prescribes. 

Baltimoke,  May  9,  1857.  A.  C.  C. 


APOLOaY. 


The  Holy  ScriptureSj  as  translated  in  the  reign  of 
king  James  the  First,  are  the  noblest  heritage  of 
the  Anglo-Saxon  race.  Contemporary  with  the 
rise  of  colonial  emigration  from  the  great  hive  of 
parent  life  and  enterprise,  the  English  Bible,  of 
that  epoch,  would  seem  designed,  by  Providence, 
to  be  the  parting  blessing  of  the  Mother  of  Na- 
tions, to  her  adventurous  progeny.  Itself  the 
product  of  long  years  of  fidelity  to  the  great 
Charter  of  man's  salvation,  it  represented  to  the 
emigrant,  not  alone  the  love  and  care  of  the 
Church  of  that  particular  age  ;  but  it  came  to 
him,  hallowed  with  the  memory  of  a  long  line  of 
witnesses,  to  whom  he  owed  it  under  God.  It 
was  the  work,  in  some  degree,  of  all,  who,  in  the 
successive  stages  of  England's  growth  and  devel- 
opment, had  contributed  to  that  great  principle  of 
the  Anglican  Reformation,  that  the  Bible,  with 
all  its  precious  promises,  is,  by  covenant  with 
GoD_,  the  rightful  treasure  of  every  Christian  man, 
and  of  every  Christian  child.  It  was  the  Bible 
of  Adhelm  and  Bede  and  ^Ifric  and  of  Alfred ; 
of  Stephen  Langton  and  Rolle  of  Hampole  ;  of 
1* 


Wiclif  and  Tindal  and  Coverdale  and  Cranmer 
and  Parker,  and  of  all  the  noble  army  of  Marian 
Martyrs.  Finally,  it  was  the  Bible  which  had 
been  winnowed  from  whatever  was  unsubstantial 
in  the  fruits  of  all  their  labours,  and  which  com- 
bined the  merits  of  all ;  it  was  the  finest  of  the 
wheat.  When  it  appeared,  Shakespeare  and  Spen- 
ser had  written  in  poetry,  and  Hooker  in  prose, 
and  Milton  was  just  born.  The  English  lan- 
guage was  in  its  prime  and  purity ;  its  wells  were 
undefiled.  As  yet,  there  were  no  developed 
schisms  in  the  great  family  ;  recusants  were  few, 
and  non-conformists  were  not  yet  dissenters.  The 
great  work  was,  itself,  an  Irenicum,  and  for  a 
time,  it  seemed  as  if  the  spreading  plague  of  re- 
ligious dissension  might  be  stayed.  If  not,  it  re- 
mained to  be  seen,  as  it  yet  does,  whether  this 
golden  casket  might  not  contain  the  elixir  of  reno- 
vation^ and  prove,  in  the  end,  the  '^  healer  of  the 
breach,''  of  the  common  family  to  which  the  Eng- 
lish language  is  the  mother-tongue.  It  went 
abroad,  in  every  adventurer's  chest,  the  talisman 
of  his  ancestral  faith,  and  the  keepsake  of  home 
affection.  It  went  to  Jamestown,  and  it  went  to 
Plymouth  Kock.  It  was  read  by  the  camp-fire  of 
Smith,  on  the  Virginia  river,  and  by  the  winter 
fireside  of  the  Fathers  of  New  England.  There 
was  at  least  one  thing  held  in  common  by  both 
these  colonies  ;  and,  whatever  may  have  been  the 
discontent  of  the  Puritan,  he  could  not  open  his 


Bible  without  a  kindly  thought  towards  the 
Church  of  England,  as  a  Mother,  whose  breasts 
were  flowing  with  the  milk  of  God's  Word,  even 
though  her  hands  were  employed  in  chastisement 
and  discipline.  ''For  myself,"  said  Kobinson, 
the  leader  of  the  Puritan  emigration  to  Holland, 
''I  believe  with  my  heart,  and  profess  with  my 
tongue,  that  I  have  one  and  the  same  faith,  hope, 
spirit,  baptism,  and  Lord,  which  I  had  in  the 
Church  of  England,  and  none  other/'  So,  on 
the  deck  of  the  Arabella,  Winthrop  and  his  asso- 
ciates wrote  their  famous  letter,  ''  calling  the 
Church  of  England  their  dear  Mother,"  and  de- 
claring that  they  could  not  part  from  ''  their  na- 
tive country,  where  she  specially  resideth,  with- 
out much  sadness  of  heart,  and  tears  in  their  eyes; 
ever  acknowledging  that  such  hope  and  j^art  as 
they  had  obtained  in  the  common  salvation,  they 
had  received  in  her  bosom,  and  sucked  it  from  her 
breasts." 

And  now,  after  two  hundred  years  of  the  send- 
ing forth  of  colonies,  the  Anglo-Saxon  people 
dwell  in  every  latitude  and  longitude  ;  they  min- 
gle their  blood  with  other  races,  and  yet  remain 
one  with  the  parent  stock.  Time,  indeed,,  is 
working  changes ;  and  far-severed  branches  of  the 
same  original  family  must  have  their  own  house- 
hold feelings,  and  immediate  ties  of  home.  It  is 
not  altogether  true,  alas  !  that  this  mighty  peo- 
ple have  all  ''  one  Lord,  one  faith,  one  baptism." 


8 

If  it  were  so,  the  world  would  be  their  easy  con- 
quest for  the  Cross.  They  do  not  pray  the  same 
prayers,  nor  with  one  heart  and  one  mouth,  con- 
fess the  same  ^^form  of  sound  words."  But  as 
yet,  over  and  above  the  common  spirit  of  their 
laws,  they  hold  fast  the  great  Charter,  from 
which  their  free  laws  have  proceeded ;  they  pos- 
sess the  same  Bible. 

Can  it  be  necessary  to  argue  that  no  one  can 
inflict  a  graver  wound  on  the  unity  of  the  race, 
and  on  all  the  sacred  interests  which  depend  on 
that  unity,  under  God,  than  by  tampering  with 
the  English  Bible?  By  the  acclamation  of  the 
universe,  it  is  the  most  faultless  version  of  the 
Scriptures  that  ever  existed  in  any  tongue.  To 
complain  of  its  trifling  blemishes,  is  to  complain 
of  the  sun  for  its  spots.  Whatever  may  be  its 
faults,  they  are  less  evil,  in  every  way,  than  would 
be  the  evils  sure  to  arise  from  any  attempt  to 
eradicate  them  ;  and  where  there  is  so  much  of 
wheat,  the  few  tares  may  be  allowed  to  stand  till 
the  end  of  the  world.  Two  centuries,  complete, 
have  identified  even  its  slightest  peculiarities  with 
the  whole  literature,  poetry,  prose,  and  science, 
as  well  as  with  the  entire  thought  and  theology 
of  those  ages,  and  the  time,  to  all  appearance,  is 
forever  past,  when  any  alteration  can  be  made  in 
it,  without  a  shock  to  a  thousand  holy  things,  and 
to  the  pious  sensibilities  of  millions. 


9 

The  care  with  which  the  Hebrews  guarded  every 
jot  and  tittle  of  their  Scriptures  was  never  reprov- 
ed by  our  Saviour.  It  is  our  duty  and  interest  to 
imitate  them  in  the  jealousy  with  which  God's 
Holy  Word  is  kept  in  our  own  language.  Even 
the  antiquated  words  of  the  English  Bible  will 
never  become  obsolete,  while  they  are  preserved  in 
the  amber  of  its  purity  ;  and  there,  they  have  a 
precious  beauty  and  propriety  which  they  would 
lack  elsewhere.  The  language  lives  there  in  its 
strength,  as  in  a  citadel,  and  knows  no  damage, 
while  it  keeps  that  house  like  a  strong  man  arm- 
ed. He  who  would  rub  off  those  graceful  marks 
of  age  which  adorn  our  version,  vulgarizes  and 
debases  that  venerable  dignity  with  which  the  first 
ideas  of  religion  come  to  the  youthful  mind  and 
heart  from  the  old  and  hoary  Bible. 

But  it  is  a  graver  thought,  that  no  individual, 
and  no  set  of  individuals,  can  leave  even  a  mark 
upon  the  Bible,  in  these  days,  without  disfiguring 
and  injuring  it,  in  the  estimation  of  the  great  ma- 
jority of  readers.  No  commission  from  the  Queen, 
no  concurrence  of  the  Universities,  no  act  of  Con- 
vocation of  the  Church  of  England  herself,  could 
make  any  change  involving  matter  of  faith,  opin- 
ion, or  even  of  taste,  that  could  be  accepted  so  uni- 
versally, as  is  the  work  in  its  integrity,  as  it  now 
exists,  petty  faults  and  marvellous  merits  togeth- 
er. The  best  and  the  most  that  can  be  done,  even 
in  England,  is  to  ensure  the  strict  preservation  of 


10 

the  text  and  its  accessories,  as  they  are  according 
to  the  present  standards.  For,  granting  all  that 
can  be  said  against  the  present  translation,  the 
question  is,  can  any  other  that  can  now  be  made, 
become  what  this  is,  to  the  world  ?  It  will  not  do 
for  England  to  take  an  insular  view  of  this  ques- 
tion, nor  for  us  to  take  an  American  one.  It  is  of 
the  utmost  consequence,  that  the  whole  Anglo- 
Saxon  people  should  have  one  Bible,  as  one  God. 
It  is  of  vast  importance  to  Christendom,  that 
there  should  not  be  a  multiplication  of  Bibles, 
every  sect  setting  forth  its  own.  It  is  of  the  high- 
est importance,  as  every  thoughtful  Christian  will 
admit,  that  the  unhappy  divisions  which  now  ex- 
ist, should  not  be  made  manifold  more  and  greater, 
as  would  certainly  be  the  case,  should  this  idea  of 
sectarian  Bibles  gain  the  ascendant.  For  who 
does  not  feel  it  all  important  that  Christians 
should  re-unite,  and  not  increase  their  quarrels  ? 
Who  does  not  deplore  the  existing  estrangements 
among  professed  disciples  of  Christ  ?  Who  would 
not  suffer  the  loss  of  many  things  for  the  sake  of 
bringing  all  ^^  who  love  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  in 
sincerity,"  into  one  accord,  and  one  mind,  that  all 
might  strive,  together,  for  the  faith  of  the  Gospel ! 
The  movement,  in  England,  which  has  made 
some  little  stir  in  Parliament,  in  behalf  of  a  new 
translation,  seems  to  have  been  set  on  foot  by  par- 
ties confessedly  averse  to  the  great  doctrinal  truths 
of  the  Gosj)el.     It  is  significant,  that  the  Edin- 


11 

burgh  Review,  in  a  late  article  of  distinctly  lati- 
tudinarian  character,  has  pronounced  in  favour  of 
the  experiment.  But  even  the  Edinburgh  Review, 
with  all  its  Scottish  prejudices  and  non-ecclesiasti- 
cal sympathies,  deprecates  any  private  enterprise 
of  the  kind,  and  insists  that  it  must  proceed  from 
the  Church  of  England,  and  by  a  commission  from 
the  Queen,  such  as  performed  the  original  work. 
With  regard  to  voluntary  Societies,  while  it  opines 
that  they  will  not  be  deterred  from  a  similar  un- 
dertaking, it  says,  forcibly,  however,  that  ^'this 
is  an  evil  which  we  most  earnestly  deprecate;'' 
and  it  adds :  ^  ^  With  all  our  anxiety  to  witness 
the  issue  of  a  corrected  translation  of  the  Sacred 
Scriptures,  ...  we  should  deeply  regret  to  find 
it  attempted  without  authority,  at  the  expense  of 
an  unlearned  Society,  and  under  the  direction  of 
an  anonymous  editor.  The  Holy  Bible,  on  the 
right  understanding  of  which  the  salvation  of  us 
all  depends,  ought  not  to  be  thus  lightly  and  irrev- 
erently dealt  by." 

Now  it  is  certain,  that  the  millions  of  Anglo- 
Saxon  Christians,  who  belong  to  the  Anglican 
Communion_,  would  not  take  the  amended  Bible 
on  any  lower  authority  than  that  of  such  a  Com- 
mission as  the  reviewer  suggests  :  but  would  they 
accept  it,  even  on  such  authority  ?  Or  can  it  be 
imagined  that  others  would  do  so,  English  or 
Americans,  even  if  the  Churchman  should  ?  It  is 
evident  that  the  proposal  of  the  reviewer  is  based 


12 

upon  ideas  of  Lord  Palmerston's  continued  reign, 
and  of  the  appointment  of  such  ^^  erudite  persons" 
as  the  latitudinarian  Mr.  Jowett.  But  the  Church 
of  England  would  never  suhmit  to  such  a  Com- 
mission,  nor  would  any  other  Christians  who  be- 
lieve in  Christ  Crucified,  and  in  the  plenary  in- 
spiration of  the  Sacred  Oracles. 

It  may  be  believed  then  that  the  time  has  gone 
by  for  the  radical  improvement  of  the  English 
Bible,  even  in  England.  But  if  it  cannot  be  done, 
at  the  fountain,  in  the  mother  land,  it  surely  can- 
not be  done  elsewhere  :  for  this  river  of  Paradise 
is  ^'parted  from  thence,  and  become  into  four 
heads,"  in  the  four  quarters  of  the  globe,  so  that 
nothing  that  is  done  in  any  one  branch  can  possi- 
bly flow  to  all.  There  is  certainly  no  possibility 
that  the  plan  suggested  by  the  Edinburgh  Keview 
could  be  satisfactorily  carried  out  in  our  gen- 
eration ;  and  its  proposal,  that  the  commission 
should  be  a  perpetual  one,  is  a  suggestion  of  such 
unbounded  change,  as  makes  one  shudder.  Every 
generation  has  its  fashions  ;  and  the  Bible,  set 
and  set  again,  according  to  prevailing  whims, 
would  become  as  untrustworthy  as  an  old  town- 
clock,  continually  corrected  by  private  watches. 
It  must  be  remembered,  that  critical  Bibles  and 
commentaries,  professedly  such,  will  constantly 
be  coming  forth,  from  competent  scholars,  and 
will  be  always  at  hand  for  those  who  need  them. 
It  is  only  of  the  standard  that  we  are  speaking. 


13 

Let  pious  men  multiply  their  contributions  to  this 
sacred  wealth  of  nations :  let  even  revised  trans- 
lations be  put  forth,,  for  private  use  and  study ; 
and,  if  ever,  by  the  disappearance  of  heresies  and 
schisms,  the  good  day  should  arrive,  when  a  few 
wholesome  emendations  might  pass  into  the 
standard,  as  by  acclamation,  then,  but  not  till 
th^,  in  the  Lord's  name,  let  it  be  done. 

If  these  sober  views  of  the  reverend  sanctity, 
and  inestimable  worth,  of  our  common  English 
Bible,  are  not  unreasonable,  it  would  seem  to  fol- 
low that  nothing  less  than  a  very  general  public 
movement  could  justify  any  private  association,  or 
any  combinatian  of  individuals,  in  an  attempt  to 
alter  the  standard  for  a  whole  people,  speaking 
the  English  tongue.  Strange  that  the  present 
moment  is  witness  to  two  such  attempts,  never- 
theless, on  the  part  of  voluntary  Societies  in 
America  !  That  any  man,  or  set  of  men,  however 
respectable  in  their  spheres  of  private  usefulness, 
should  propose  themselves  as  the  competent  emen- 
dators  of  such  a  standard,  or  dream  of  producing 
a  Bible  for  common  use,  that  should  unite  the  suf- 
frages of  their  fellow  Christians,  and  supersede 
the  time-honored  version  in  its  integrity,  would 
seem  to  prove  that  nothing  is  too  holy  for  the 
hand  of  rash  innovation,  or  too  high  for  the  ad- 
venture of  presumptuous  experiment : 

"  As  if  religion  were  intended 
For  nothing  else  but  to  be  mended  1" 

2 


14 

Refined  gold  must  be  gilded,  and  tlie  lily  painted ; 
and  if  possible,  the  very  lights  of  heaven  would 
be  tinkered  and  repaired,  by  the  wild  conceit  of 
the  times  :  but,  to  see  good  and  pious  men, 
touched  with  the  same  enthusiasm  which  infects 
the  unthinking  and  irreligious,  is  indeed  deplora- 
ble. How  melancholy  the  exhibition  which  the 
worthy,  but  mistaken,  projectors  of  the  ^'  ^ew 
Baptist  Version"  have  made  of  themselves  and 
their  cause  ;  and  how  sad  the  spectacle  presented 
by  the  '^American  Bible  Society,"  in  its  half- 
way adventure  towards  the  same  conclusion  ! 

Of  that  Society,  in  its  original  plan  and  con- 
ception, I  desire  to  speak  with  all  respect.  Of  its 
present  constituency,  I  would  scarcely  speak  with 
less.  I  believe  it  embraces  thousands  who  have 
been,  in  no  wise,  parties  to  the  exploits  of  its 
managers,  which  I  find  almost  unknown  as  mat- 
ter of  fact,  and  quite  unsuspected,  as  to  character 
and  extent.  Though  the  writer  has  never  been 
able  to  confide  in  the  practical  wisdom  of  the  So- 
ciety, or  in  the  elements  of  its  Constitution,  so 
far  as  to  become  one  of  its  members,  he  profound- 
ly sympathizes  with  its  professed  object  ;  and 
yields  the  sincerest  homage  to  the  example  and 
judgment  of  many,  his  superiors  in  years  and  dig- 
nity, who  have  heretofore  confided  in  its  manage- 
ment, and  regarded  its  fidelity  to  the  declared 
purposes  of  its  founders,  as  unimpeachable.  And,, 
certainly,  so  long  as  the  Society  continued  to  sup- 


15 

ply  the  million  with  the  virgin  Scriptures,  he 
never*  could  have  supposed  it  his  duty  to  add  an- 
other voice  to  the  warnings,  which,  at  the  very 
outset  of  the  Society's  career,  denounced  its  ulti- 
mate tendencies  as  dangerous  to  truth,  on  the 
ground  of  its  compromises  with  error.  But  I  be- 
lieve those  tendencies  have  now  developed  into 
manifest  proclivities  towards  a  surrender  of  great 
Christian  principles.  For  more  than  thirty  years, 
the  Society  is  said  to  have  celebrated  its  great  an- 
niversary festivals,  in  the  presence  of  hundreds  of 
23rofessed  ministers  of  Christ,  without  a  prayer 
for  His  blessing,  or  an  inscription  to  the  glory  of 
the  Holy  Trinity  ;  and  that,  confessedly,  on  the 
ground  of  the  radical  differences  among  its  con- 
stituents, as  to  the  very  nature  of  GrOD,  and  the 
proper  manner  of  invoking  His  adorable  name. 
While  proposing  a  practical  union  of  Christians, 
such  as  the  Word  and  Sacraments,  ordained  of 
Christ  Himself,  are  pronounced  incapable  of  ef- 
fecting, it  has  resulted  in  new  divisions,  and  in  the 
production  of  a  rival  ' 'American  Bible  Society,'' 
and  a  rival  version, — on  the  part  of  the  Baptists. 
Can  such  an  association  be  a  safe  '  ^  witness  and 
keeper  of  Holy  Writ?"  It  has  answered  the 
question,  by  making  itself  a  manufacturer  of  al- 
loy, and  debasing  the  very  standard  it  is  pledged 
to  circulate  in  its  integrity.  It  already  circulates 
a  Bible  which  justifies  the  worst  "  prophecies 
which  went  before  on  it,"  from  the  lips  of  Bishop 


16 

Hobart ;  and,  yet,  no  one  can  examine  this  new 
standard,  and  the  principles  on  which  it  ha?  been 
produced,  without  seeing  that,  if  once  admitted, 
it  must  prove  the  precursor  of  changes  the  most 
thorough,  and  the  most  fatal  to  orthodoxy.  What 
has  been  done  already,  should  it  prove  acceptable, 
will  authorize  the  further  amendment  of  a  thou- 
sand texts,  and  the  entire  subversion  of  the  stand- 
ard in  common  use.  And  even  if  it  proceeds  no 
further,  it  degrades  Holy  Scripture  in  the  popular 
estimation :  it  destroys  the  feeling,  so  healthful 
and  so  prevalent,  that  the  Bible  is  a  book  above 
change,  and  too  holy  to  be  subjected  to  experi- 
ments ;  and,  that  wholesome  habit  of  confidence 
in  Christ,  as  the  alpha  and  omega  of  both  Testa- 
ments, which  the  old  Bible,  with  its  quaint  sum- 
maries, generated  so  naturally  in  the  heart  of 
youth,  must  entirely  disappear,  under  its  widely 
different  spirit.  Should  it  become  the  Bible  of 
the  American  people,  a  cold,  modernized,  and  (to 
the  man  of  feeling)  a  vulgarized  work  will  have 
supplanted  the  Bible  which  we  have  known  from 
childhood,  and  which  has  made  so  many  ^  ^  wise 
unto  salvation."  But  I  hope  the  Christians  of 
America  are  not  prepared  for  such  a  change  ;  and 
I  believe  that  many  members  of  the  Bible  Society 
deplore  and  feel  the  injury  already  done,  as  much 
as  I  do,  and  are  as  anxious  that  it  should  be  ar- 
rested before  it  goes  further. 


ir 

In  concluding  these  introductory  remarks,  it 
may  be  well  to  introduce  a  letter  of  the  present 
Primate  of  all  England,  who  is  universally  re- 
vered for  his  piety,  and  who  will  not  be  accused  of 
prelatical  bigotry  by  any  party.  It  was  written 
to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Mason,  of  Maryland,  as  Chair- 
man of  a  Committee  of  the  General  Convention 
on  the  Standard  Bible  of  the  Anglo-American 
Church  ;  and  it  would  seem,  accordingly,  that 
there  is  a  recognized  Standard  Text  in  the  Mother 
Country,  to  which  every  motive  would  lead  us  to 
conform  as  closely  as  possible. 

Lambeth,  April  11th,  1851. 

Dear  Sir, — I  am  happy  to  have  it  in  my  power  to  answer 
your  letter  of  inquiry  concerning  the  text  of  the  Bible. 

During  the  years  1834,  1835  and  1836,  the  delegates  of  the 
Oxford  and  the  Syndics  of  the  Cambridge  press  had  a  long  and 
elaborate  correspondence  on  the  state  of  the  text  of  the  Bible  as 
then  printed,  and  until  then  there  had  been  much  inaccuracy. 
A  correct  text,  according  to  the  edition  of  1611,  was  then 
adopted,  both  in  the  Oxford  and  Cambridge  Bibles.  The  Secre- 
tary of  the  Society  for  Promoting  Christian  Knowledge  has  fur- 
nished me  with  the  following  statement  from  Mr.  Combe,  the 
superintendent  of  the  Oxford  press:— 

*  The  text  of  all  the  Oxford  editions  of  the  Bible  is  now  the 
same,  and  is  in  conformity  with  the  edition  of  1611,  which  is, 
and  has  been  for  many  years,  adopted  for  the  standard  text. 
The  medium  quarto  book  is  stereotyped,  which  protects  it  from 
casual  errors ;  and  having  been  long  in  use  without  the  detec- 
tion of  any  error,  I  have  reason  to  think  that  it  may  be  con- 
sidered as  perfect  as  a  book  can  be,  and  may  therefore  be  fairly 
received  as  the  Standard  Book  of  the  Society.' 
2* 


18 

It  is  a  most  gratifying  thought,  that  our  English  Bible  should 
be  circulated  over  your  vast  continent,  and  that  our  native  lan- 
guage should  be  employed  as  the  vehicle  of  Eternal  Truth  to 
an  increasing  multitude  of  readers ;  and  we  may  justly  pray, 
that  the  purity  which  is  secured  to  the  text,  may  be  extended 
also  to  the  doctrines  gathered  from  the  t«xt  and  propounded  to 
the  hearers  of  the  Word. 

It  gives  me  much  pleasure  to  have  had  this  opportunity  of 
communicating  with  an  American  brother,  and  I  remain.  Rev. 
Sir,  your  faithful  servant,  J.  B.  Cantuar. 

Kev.  Henry  M.  Mason. 

The  American  Bible  Society,  instituted  in  1816, 
has  always  professed  that  ^'  the  sole  object"  of  its 
existence  is  '  ^  the  encouragement  of  a  wider  cir- 
culation of  the  Holy  Scriptures  without  note  or 
comment;"  and  that  ^Hhe  only  copies  in  the 
English  language  to  be  circulated  by  the  Society 
shall  be  of  the  version  noiv  (1816)  in  common  use." 
To  auxiliary  societies  it  has  proposed  as  a  corres- 
ponding article  of  Constitution,  that  their  object 
should  be  ^^  to  promote  the  circulation  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures,  without  note  or  comment,  and  in 
English  those  of  the  commonly  received  version."* 

Could  any  human  being  have  imagined  that  a 
society,  endowed  and  enriched  by  the  gifts  and 
bequests  of  pious  men  for  this  sole  object,  could 
ever  have  supposed  itself  authorized  to  undertake 
the  work  of  thoroughly  criticising  and  revising 
the  received  version,  and  setting  it  forth  anew, 
not  merely  amended  in  the  text,  divested  of  its 

»  See  Annual  Reports,  &c. 


19 

archaisms  and  Grfecisms,  furnished  with  sundry- 
new  marginal  comments,  and  purged  of  many  of  its 
old  marginal  notes  and  references ;  but  also  fur- 
nished with  a  new  system  of  summaries  or  head- 
ings, containing  the  most  pregnant  comment,  in 
its  unity  of  cast  and  conception  ;  and,  as  compared 
with  what  it  supplants,  amounting  to  a  severe 
censure  on  the  old  Bible,  and  on  the  general  tone 
of  Evangelical  religion  by  which  it  is  character- 
ized ?  Such  a  sweeping  work  has  been  achieved, 
nevertheless,  by  Managers  of  the  Society,  and  is 
now  the  standard,  in  which  it  glories,  and  which, 
for  the  present,  it  circulates  exclusively. 

,  I  say  for  the  present ;  for  who  shall  say  how 
long  the  managers  of  such  a  Society,  growing 
richer  and  richer  every  year,  and  finding  employ- 
ment for  a  body  of  men,  not  by  any  means  too 
small  for  its  reasonable  operations,  will  be  content 
with  such  meagre  preliminaries  ?  Thirty  years 
more,  and  another  generation  may  see  a  new  ex- 
periment, under  the  sanction  of  this,  which  will 
be  carried  further  ;  and  a  vast  body  of  Geologists 
may  entirely  control  the  work  of  a  new  transla- 
tion. Experience  demonstrates  that  I  am  not  a 
gratuitous  alarmist.  While  I  am  writing  these 
pages,  a  respectable  newspaper,  of  the  ^^Eeform- 
ed  Dutch  Communion,"  records  the  deplorable 
success  of  such  a  scheme,  in  the  bosom  of  the 
Fatherland  of  that  interesting  branch  of  the  Con- 


20 

tinental  Keformation.  Hear  its  unexceptionable 
testimony  !     It  says  : 

"  The  National  Church  of  Holland,  the  descendant  of  the 
Old  Keformed  Church  of  Dort,  has,  it  is  true,  still  its  old  ortho- 
dox standards ;  but  by  additional  regulations  the  Synod  has 
deprived  them  of  their  binding  power,  in  consequence  of  which 
Kationalism  and  Unitarianism  have,  in  the  course  of  the  last 
fifty  years,  seized  almost  the  whole  of  the  clergy.  The  Synod 
recently  by  an  official  verdict  virtually  declared,  that  ministers 
who  hold  Unitarian  views  are  legal  office-bearers  of  the  Church. 
Of  her  1500  ministers,  not  more  than  a  hundred  are  known  as 
maintaining  Evangelical  truth ;  and  the  Synod  has  resolved  to 
publish  a  new  translation  of  the  Bible,  which  (as  the  committee 
and  translators  consist,  almost  without  exception,  of  Unitarians) 
will  doubtless  favor  their  views — and  thus  the  faith  of  the  peo- 
ple, sustained  by  the  old  Dutch  translation,  one  of  the  best  in 
Europe,  will  be  still  further  undermined/^ 

I  trust  such  a  fact  may  beget  a  willingness,  on 
part  of  some,  otherwise  prejudiced  in  favor  of 
anything  which  may  proceed  from  a  source  so  re- 
spectable as  the  Managing  Committee  of  the 
American  Bible  Society,  to  bear  with  me,  as  I 
proceed  to  examine,  in  a  spirit  of  candid  inquiry, 
and  without  injustice  to  what  is  good  in  their 
work,  this  novel  and  amended  '^  Standard  Bible.'' 
I  have  before  me  their  own  Keport,  printed  in 

1852.  I  have  been  familiar  with  their  work  since 

1853,  when  my  attention  was  called  to  it  by  a  re- 
spected brother  in  the  Ministry,  who  thought  it 
might  deserve  to  be  made  the  standard  of  the 
Church  to  which  we  both  belong.     But  I  find  that 


21 

the  fact  is  not  generally  known,  even  among  mem- 
bers of  the  Society,  that  such  a  Eeport  exists,  or 
that  the  extensive  changes  of  which  it  speaks,  have 
been  made.  I  have  hoped  that  some  one,  more 
immediately  interested,  might  offer  remonstrances. 
I  find  that  many  are  anxious  to  know  what  has 
been  done  ;  and  circumstances  have  forced  me,  re- 
luctantly, to  make  this  attempt  to  enlighten  them. 
It  is  justly  urged,  that  the  committee  who  are 
responsible  for  the  new  Bible,  consists  of  highly 
respectable  men,  and  men  of  known  piety  and 
learning.  But  it  may  be  answered,  as  forcibly, 
that  were  it  otherwise,  it  would  hardly  be  worth 
while  to  take  any  notice  of  their  performance.  It 
is  not  my  good  fortune  to  be  known  to  any  of  them 
personally,  save  only  the  venerable  Dr.  Turner, 
of  the  General  Theological  Seminary.  But  every 
one  knows,  at  least  by  reputation,  the  learned  and 
laborious  Dr.  Robinson,  whose  name  and  scholar- 
ship are  an  honor  to  his  country.  I  am  not  aware 
that  any  other  members  of  the  Committee  are  dis- 
tinguished as  Biblical  critics  ;  and  lively  as  is  my 
sense  of  the  regard  which  is  due  to  eminent  worth 
and  piety,  I  cannot  see  that  any  thing  is  added  to 
the  dignity  or  strength  of  the  Committee,  by  any 
of  its  members,  whose  distinction  lies  in  other 
walks  of  life,  or  in  other  departments  of  science. 
The  strength  of  a  chain  is  not  increased  by  its  in- 
ferior links,  however  numerous  or  polished  they 
may  be  ;  and  the  real  claim  of  the  Committee  up- 


22 

on  our  deference  seems  to  me  to  reside  in  the  fact 
that  it  comprehends  the  names  of  Drs.  Turner 
and  Eobinson.  How  much  of  the  labour  that  has 
been  expended  on  the  work  has  been  contributed 
by  these  distinguished  scholars,  it  may  be  well  to 
inquire,  but  my  review  of  the  work  is  based  on 
the  postulate,  that  no  private  criticism,  however 
respectable,  has  a  right  to  alter  the  Standard 
English  Bible. 

For  if  it  requires  some  confidence  in  the  sanc- 
tity, as  well  as  justice,  of  one's  course,  to  criticise 
the  doings  of  Drs.  Turner  and  Robinson,  let  me 
direct  attention  to  the  assurance  which  it  requires 
in  any  man  to  overrule  and  ^^  go  behind"*  those 
giants  of  Scriptural  scholarship,  the  translators 
of  the  Bible.  If  my  review  should,  by  any,  be 
construed  as  reflecting  upon  two  of  the  worthiest 
scholars  of  our  times,  I  hope  it  may  be  remember- 
ed, that  it  is  rather  a  defence  of  forty  great  schol- 
ars of  the  old  time,  whose  reputation  and  labours 
have  received  the  homage  of  men  of  learning  for 
more  than  two  centuries  complete.  .  Let  me  begin 
by  a  reference  to  the  favourite  Dr.  Reynolds,  called 
by  the  Committee  ^'  the  leader  of  the  Puritans." 
Such  an  epithet  does  little  justice  to  the  friend  of 
Jewell  and  Hooker,  who  lived  and  died  in  the 
Communion  of  the  Church  of  England,  ate  of  her 
bread,  officiated  in  her  vestments,  and  knelt  at  her 
altars,  and  whose  last  breath  was  a  request  for  the 

^  See  the  Report  of  Committee  on  Versions,  p.  19. 


23 

priestly  absolution,  contained  in  her  office  for  the 
Visitation  of  the  sick.  '^  The  memory  and  read- 
ing of  that  man  were  near  to  a  miracle,"  accord- 
ing to  Bishop  Hall ;  and  according  to  Fuller,  his 
non-conformity  amounted  only  to  a  charity  for 
those  whose  scruples  were  not  his  own.  But  who 
shall  compare  with  the  great  Bishop  Andrewes,  to 
whose  virtue  even  Milton  could  not  grudge  a  tri- 
bute : 

At  te  prsecipue  luxi,  dignissime  prajsul, 
Wintonigeque  oliiji  gloria  magna  tu^  : 

and  whose  private  prayers  were  written  and  ut- 
tered ^^  with  strong  crying  and  tears"  before  God, 
in  the  Greek  tongue  ?  I  will  not  presume  upon 
the  ignorance  of  my  readers,  in  saying  more  of 
such  men,  nor  in  dwelling  on  the  praises  of  Sara- 
via,  the  bosom-friend  and  counsellor  of  Hooker  ; 
of  Bedwell,  ^Hhe  industrious  and  thrice-learned;" 
of  Livlie,  of  Chaderton,  of  Sir  Henry  Savile,  and 
others  their  equals  in  learning,  and  their  worthy 
associates.  But  let  me  add,  at  least,  as  giving  an 
idea  of  the  varied  learning,  theological  opinions, 
and  tastes,  which  had  room  to  operate  in  the  pro- 
duction of  our  Bible,  the  names  of  Bishops  Over- 
all, Barlow,  Miles  Smith  and  Bilson,  and  the 
Calvinistic  Archbishop  Abbot.  A  biographical 
history  of  all  who  had  part  in  the  Translation,  is 
a  desideratum,  and  might  be  an  effectual  antidote 
to  the  itch  for  superseding  their  work,  which 
seems  to  trouble  so  many  in  our  days.    While, 


24 

tlien,  for  myself,  I  should  feel  profoundly  unwor- 
thy to  advance  a  critical  opinion,  contrary  to 
those  of  the  two  eminent  linguists  engaged  in  the 
production  of  this  new  standard,  I  cannot  blush 
for  my  presumption,  in  defending,  even  against 
their  amendments,  the  work  of  those  great  men, 
concerning  whom  their  contemporary,  Fuller, 
says,  so  eloquently,  ^'  Wheresoever  the  Bible 
shall  be  preached,  or  read,  in  the  whole  world, 
there  shall  also  this  that  they  have  done  be  told 
in  memorial  of  them."    * 

It  certainly  was  due  to  the  memory  of  such  men, 
that  no  inferior  hands  should  be  allowed  to  tamper 
with  their  work.  A  Michael  Angelo  might  be 
trusted  to  restore  a  broken  work  of  Phidias,  but 
who  would  not  prefer  the  antique,  with  all  its 
blemishes,  to  the  mendings  of  any  secondary 
genius  ?  It  becomes  important,  then,  to  inquire, 
how  far  the  emendation  of  this  precious  work  was 
entrusted  to  Drs.  Turner  and  Robinson,  and 
whether  their  names  are  more  than  a  nominal 
guarantee  of  the  sound  judgment,  taste,  and  schol- 
arship employed  in  the  performance.  I  have  close- 
ly scrutinized  the  Report,  to  find  out,  especially, 
whether  Dr.  Turner  has  had  more  than  a  subordi- 
nate hand  in  it :  and  while  I  feel  much  relieved, 
by  finding  that  he  has  lent  little  more  than  his 
honoured  name  to  the  enterprise,  I  am  amazed  at 
the  discovery  that  Dr.  Robinson,  the  only  remain- 
ing critic,  has  had  a  merely  secondary  share  in  it. 


25 

The  work  is  primarily  the  product  of  another 
hand  :  the  hand  not  of  a  retired  and  studious 
scholar  ;  but  of  a  respectable  Presbyterian  pastor, 
immersed  in  professional  cares,  and  consequently 
labouring  under  almost  every  disadvantage  as  an 
emendator.  This  fact  disarms  criticism  so  far  as 
relates  to  this  party,  and  excuses  the  bungling 
which  is  apparent,  even  from  the  Report  of  the 
Committee  ;  but  it  does  not  excuse  the  Managers 
from  the  charge  of  having  committed  a  work  of 
magnitude  and  importance,  to  hands  from  which 
no  reflecting  man  would  willingly  accept  an 
amended  Bible. 

I  have  arrived  at  these  conclusions  from  a  com- 
parison of  several  parts  of  the  Report.  That  Dr. 
Turner's  responsibility  is  nominal,  appears  from 
the  fact  that  while  divers  minor  celebrities  receive 
each  his  modicum  of  praise,  ^'  according  to  his 
several  ability,"  no  such  praise  is  accorded  to  the 
distinguished  ability  of  this  eminent  Professor. 
His  name  seems  only  to  be  used  as  a  compliment 
to  the  Chui'ch  of  which  he  is  so  bright  an  orna- 
ment. Nor  can  I  perceive  that  the  erudition  of 
Dr.  Robinson  is  any  great  warrant  for  confidence. 
He  seems  to  have  served  merely  as  one  of  a  Sub- 
Committee,  which  met  ' '  once  in  each  week  and 
sometimes  oftener"  to  review  the  labours  of  the 
principal  party  to  the  enterprise,  ^Hhe  Collator" 
himself.  This  worthy  gentleman  deserves  no 
small  praise,  so  far  as  his  "Collation"  may  be 
3 


26 

regarded  as  private  study.  It  pains  me  to  seem 
censorious,  when  speaking  of  his  long  and  careful 
devotion  to  the  duty  assigned  him.  He  reports 
hardly  less  than  24,000  variations  in  the  '^text 
and  punctuation  of  the  six  copies- compared  ;"  but 
we  are  consoled  by  the  assertion  that  ^'  of  all  this 
great  number,  there  is  not  one  which  mars  the 
integrity  of  the  text,  or  affects  any  doctrine,  or 
precept  of  the  Bible."  Such  an  assurance  would 
have  been  very  valuable  from  a  Sir  William  Jones, 
or  from  Dr.  Blayney.  But  we  mean  no  disrespect 
when  we  say  that  the  Keport  does  not  profoundly 
impress  us  with  confidence,  when  it  gives  us  this 
verdict,  upon  his  own  toils,  and  with  respect  to 
24,000  variations,  from  the  "  Pastor  of  the  First 
Presbyterian  Church  in  Williamsburgh,  N.  Y." 
The  fault  is  not  his,  but  comes  home  to  the  Mana- 
gers. If  the  work  was  to  be  done  at  all,  surely 
they  owed  it  to  themselves,  and  to  the  good  sense 
of  the  nation,  to  commit  it  to  a  Commission  of 
professional  scholars,  of  universally  approved  eru- 
dition, and  free  from  other  cares.  Why  was  not 
this  course  taken  ?  I  can  think  of  only  one  proba- 
ble reason.  They  may  have  felt  that  they  had  no 
constitutional  right  to  expend  the  funds  of  the 
contributors  on  critical  labours  ;  and  hence  they 
may  have  found  themselves  forced  to  accept  the 
voluntary  and  gratuitous  aid  of  the  first  good  and 
pious  man,  whose  zeal  and  diligence  were  suffi- 
cient to  stimulate  him  to  the  undertaking.     All 


27 

lienor  to  the  spirit  of  such  a  man  :  but  who  would 
not  prefer  the  unaltered  work  of  Dr.  Blayney,  of 
whom  even  the  Report  bears  witness  that  his  at- 
tempt to  restore  the  text  to  its  original  purity, 
^'  was  successfully  accomplished,  to  as  great  a  de- 
gree as  can  luell  he  expected  in  any  work  of  like  ex- 
tent r' 

It  would  seem,  then,  that  after  printing  for 
thirty  years  a  certain  Bible,  professing  to  be  ac- 
cording to  the  version  in  common  use,  the  ''  Com- 
mittee on  Versions"  has  furnished  the  Society 
and  the  world  with  another  ;  that  this  other  is 
made  the  standard,,  and  that,  to  it,  all  the  Socie- 
ty's English  Bibles  must  hereafter  be  conformed. 
To  excuse  this  substitution,  much  waste  of  words, 
and  of  labour  with  pen  and  ink,  has  been  made, 
in  comparing  divers  Bibles,  and  in  shewing  up 
their  faults.  But  what  have  we  to  do  with  Scotch 
and  American  reprints,  when  we  all  know  where 
to  find  an  English  Standard  Bible  ?  There  is  no 
need  of  learned  and  antiquarian  research  :  for 
the  question  is  one  of  plain  common  sense.  We 
will  concede,  that  for  thirty  years  the  Society  had 
fulfilled  its  pledge,  and  circulated  an  unexcep- 
tionable Bible,  according  to  the  standard  "in 
common  use,"  in  1816.  Its  fidelity  in  so  doing 
had  conciliated  a  great  degree  of  popular  confi- 
dence and  favour.  No  one  found  fault  with  the 
trifling  ''note  and  comment"  contained  in  the 
old  headings.     They  were  taken  as  part  and  parcel 


28 

of  the  work.  A  whole  generation  passed  away 
without  any  one's  dreaming  that  there  was  any- 
thing contrary  to  the  Society's  ohject^  in  the 
circulation  of  the  Bihle,  as  they  found  it,  entire. 
The  Society  could  not  change  its  position  with 
reference  to  these  summaries,  without  stultifying 
itself.  Still,  if  the  decay  of  old  orthodoxy  de- 
manded the  removal  of  landmarks,  which  their 
fathers  had  set,  the  Managers  had  one  course  he- 
fore  them,  to  which  no  objection  could  have  been 
made  on  the  score  of  their  Constitutional  pledges. 
They  might  have  resolved  on  the  circulation  of 
the  Standard  Text  only  ;  and  their  Bibles  might 
have  followed  the  usual  pocket  form,  in  the  entire 
omission  of  the  headings.  Much  as  some  mem- 
bers of  the  Society  would  have  regretted  even 
such  a  concession  to  the  religious  dyspepsia  which 
happens  to  be  fashionable,  for  the  time,  I  believe 
no  one  would  have  remonstrated  ;  and  good  men 
generally,  though  they  might  have  received  new 
impressions  of  the  untrustworthiness  of  a  Manage- 
ment unable  to  hold  its  ground,  and  to  resist  the 
beginnings  of  innovation,  might  have  rejoiced  in 
the  multiplication  of  sound  copies  of  God's  Word, 
and  would  have  been  far  from  anticipating  the 
worst,  or  raising  the  voice  of  censure  and  alarm. 
It  is  the  tendency  of  all  human  institutions  to 
corrupt  themselves,  especially  when  they  have 
begun  to  be  rich.  Twenty  years  ago  the  Ameri- 
can Bible  Society,  in  one  of  its  Keports,  expressly 


29 

deprecated  tlie  idea  of  emendations ;  but  tlie  same 
Society,  in  its  new  palace,  and  surrounded  by  the 
excitement  of  the  great  moneyed  mart  of  this  hem- 
isphere, waxes  fat,  like  Jeshurun,  and  like  him, 
begins  to  kick.  Its  strength  would  have  been  to 
sit  still.  If  it  could  have  resisted  the  temptation 
to  do  something  more  than  was  given  it  to  do,  no 
one  would  have  ventured  to  inquire  as  to  the  pro- 
priety of  its  joining  house  to  house,  and  multi- 
plying its  presses  and  diversifying  its  operations. 
True,  its  Constitution  says  nothing  about  all  this : 
but  then  the  good-natured  public  supposes  all 
this  to  be  necessary  to  the  circulating  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures,  and  possibly  it  is  so.  But  the  pos- 
session of  such  facilities  for  original  work  is  a 
great  stimulant  to  the  undertaking  of  large  en- 
terprises. That  such  a  Body  should  be  content 
to  circulate  a  Bible  conformed  to  any  standard 
^^  in  common  use,"  seems  beneath  its  dignity.  A 
modest  experiment  is  resolved  on,  which  grows 
less  modest  as  it  proceeds.  A  collation  of  versions 
is  undertaken  in  1847,  and  a  highly  respectable 
Presbyterian  minister  of  Williamsburgh  is  ap- 
pointed the  ''  Collator,"  in  1848.  The  laborious 
employment  of  this  gentleman  and  divers  assist- 
ants, for  nineteen  months,  results  in  a  thorough 
revision,  aided  by  an  entire  new  set  of  stereotype 
plates,  which  would  seem  to  have  been  duplicated, 
and  to  have  been  made  before  the  work  was  ap- 
proved by  the  ^^  Board  of  Managers,"  or  by  any 
3* 


30 

other  authority  than  that  of  a  Suh-Committee,  of 
the  Committee,  by  them  appointed.  The  final 
report  of  their  work  seems  to  have  been  adopted 
by  the  ^^  Board  of  Managers,"  May  1,  1851 ;  but 
even  then  the  standard  was  not  out  of  press,  and 
was  adopted  as  such,  much  as  the  Sixtine  Vulgate 
was  by  the  Council  of  Trent,  before  any  one  knew 
what  it  might  be. 

To  this  new  Bible,  I  desire  to  do  the  fullest 
justice.  It  is  a  beautiful  specimen  of  typographi- 
cal art,  and  is  furnished  so  cheaply,  that  had  it 
been  the  good  old  Bible,  according  to  the  former 
standards  of  the  Society,  it  would  have  been  a 
boon  to  the  nation.  As  the  case  is,  however,  its 
fair  type,  and  its  great  cheapness,  are  so  much 
the  worse.  They  tend  to  push  all  the  old  Bibles 
out  of  the  market,  and  to  make  it  difficult  for 
any  one  to  find  such  a  Bible  as  the  Society  was 
founded  to  circulate.  No  one,  to  whom  his  Bible 
has  been  for  years  a  constant  companion  can  give 
it  a  critical  glance  without  saying,  involuntarily, 
*'  how  is  this?"  It  presents  an  altered  look  :  an 
appearance  of  elaborate  deformity,  as  when  a  dear 
old  face  comes  before  one  for  the  first  time,  with 
an  entire  set  of  artificial  teeth,  of  which  the  very 
beauty  is  shocking.  The  old  pearls,  with  all  their 
blemishes,  were  better-looking  ;  and  there  is  some- 
thing foolish  in  the  expression  which  the  new 
decorations  give  to  an  otherwise  grave  and  decor- 
ous  countenance.     So  here,  the  loss  of  the  old 


31 

running  heads,  and  the  supply  of  new  ones  ;  and 
much  more  the  supply  of  the  new  summaries,  or 
arguments,  are  severely  felt.  New  wine  has  heen 
poured  into  the  old  bottles  ;  and,  on  every  account, 
one  feels  that  '^  the  old  is  better." 

This  matter  of  the  summaries,  or  headings,  will 
demand  closer  examination,  by-and-by  :  for  the 
present,  it  may  be  well  to  observe  that  they  are 
by  no  means  the  careless  "printer's  matter," 
which  has  been  supposed ;  nor  yet  are  they  the 
untrimmed  work  of  the  translators  ;  but  they  are 
the  painfully  corrected  labours  of  1611,  as  set 
forth  by  Dr.  Blayney,  and  his  associates  in  1769. 
Kespecting  his  editorial  efforts,  he  says  : — 

"  Considerable  alterations  have  been  made  in  the  heads  or 
contents  prefixed  to  the  chapters,  as  will  appear  on  inspection  j 
and  though  the  editor  is  unwilling  to  enlarge  upon  the  labor 
bestowed  by  himself  in  this  particular,  he  cannot  avoid  taking 
notice  of  the  peculiar  obligations  which  both  himself  and  the 
public  lie  under  to  the  Principal  of  Hertford  College,  Mr.  Grif- 
fith of  Pembroke  College,  Mr.  Wheeler,  Poetry  Professor,  and 
the  late  Warden  of  New  College,  so  long  as  he  lived  to  bear  a 
part  in  it ;  who  with  a  prodigious  expense  of  time,  and  inex- 
pressible fatigue  to  themselves,  judiciously  corrected  and  inqwoved 
the  rude  and  imperfect  draughts  of  the  editor.  The  running 
titles  at  the  top  of  the  columns  in  each  page,  how  t7ifling  a  cir- 
cumstance soever  it  may  appear,  required  no  small  degree  of 
thought  and  attention." 

It  thus  appears  that  the  summaries  in  our  Com- 
mon Bibles  have  come  down  to  us  from  the  origi- 
nal translators,  with  no  other  revision  than  the 
authorized  one  of  1769,  when  the  learned  iand  la- 


32 

borious  Dr.  Blayney  put  them  into  tlieir  present 
form,  with  the  thoughtful  and  conscientious  co- 
operation of  the  parties  named.  It  is  proper  to 
state  that,  the  Warden  of  New  College  was  Dr. 
Hay  ward,  that  the  Principal  of  Hertford  was  Dr. 
Sharpe,  and  that  while  Dr.  Sharpe,  at  that  time, 
was  Kegius  Professor  of  Greek,  Wheeler  was  sub- 
sequently Kegius  Professor  of  Divinity  in  the 
University  of  Oxford.  Shall  we  throw  away  their 
work  for  that  of  ^'  the  Pastor  of  the  First  Pres- 
byterian Church  in  Williamsburgh?"  Such  is 
the  question. 

Let  us  examine  the  Society's  own  octavo  Bible  of 
1850,  which  was  taken  as  'Hhe  basis  for  correc- 
tions," and  compare,  with  it,  their  new  work,  as 
expounded  by  the  Keport  aforementioned.  One 
naturally  asks,  to  begin  with,  what  was  the  need 
of  any  meddling  with  an  old  standard ;  and  after 
thirteen  pages  of  utterly  irrelevant  talk,  we  find 
that  there  was  absolutely  none.  The  Keport 
finally  reaches  several  ^'results/'  of  which  not 
one  is  of  the  slightest  practical  importance,  save 
only  the  last,  which  was  sufficiently  understood 
before  by  every  tolerably  informed  Bible  reader, 
and  which  is  as  follows  : 

"  That  the  revision  of  Dr.  Blayney,  made  by  collating  the 
then  current  editions  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge  with  those  of 
1611  and  1701,  had  for  its  main  object  to  restore  the  text  of  the 
English  Bible  to  its  original  purity  ;  and  that  this  was  success- 
fully accomplished,  to  as  great  a  degree  as  can  well  be  expected 
in  any  work  of  like  extent." 


33 

Now  this  result  is  of  great  importance.  It  ad- 
mits the  existence  of  a  competent  standard,  in 
its  original  purity,  made  to  the  Society's  hand. 
There  remained  to  tlie  Board,  then,  the  simple 
duty  of  importing  as  accurate  a  ^' Blayney"  as 
could  he  found,  and  ordering  that  future  editions 
should  he  faithfully  conformed  to  it,  except  in  the 
case  of  any  manifest  printer's  errour.  What 
other  course  could  have  heen  anticipated  ? 

But  here  the  Report  flies  hack  from  its  result, 
and  raises  a  cloud  of  dust  ahout  the  many  had 
editions  that  exist  in  America  and  elsewhere.  It 
treats  us  to  the  following  entertaining  facts, 
among  others : 

"  There  exists,  for  instance,  the  '  Vinegar  Edition,'  so  called, 
printed  at  Oxford  in  1717,  in  two  volumes  folio  ;  in  which  the 
word  '  vinegar'  is  put  for  '  vineyard"  in  Luke  13,  7. 

"  In  like  manner,  in  several  editions  betw^een  1638  and  1685, 
in  Acts  6,  3,  where  the  appointment  of  seven  deacons  is  spoken 
of,  the  reading  is  changed  from  '  whom  we  may  appoint'  to 
whom  ye  may  appoint.*  This  variation  has  sometimes  been 
charged  upon  the  Independents,  as  intentional  on  their  part ; 
but  as  it  first  appeared  in  the  Cambridge  edition  in  1638,  and  is 
not  noted  again  until  the  time  of  the  restoration,  when  it  is 
found  in  the  copies  of  Cambridge,  London  and  Edinburgh,  this 
charge  would  seem  to  be  without  foundation  ;  and  the  error, 
probably,  Avas  merely  one  of  the  press. 

"  In  one  American  edition,  in  Gal.  4,  27,  the  verse  is  thus 
printed :  '  For  it  is  written,  Rejoice,  thou  barren  that  bearest 
not ;  break  forth  and  cry,  thou  that  travailest  not :  for  the 
desolate  hath  many  more  children  than  she  which  hath  an  hun- 
dred ;'  so  prhited  instead  of  '  husband.'  " 


34 

But  what  has  all  this  to  do  with  the  fact  that 
the  ^^  Blayney"  Bible  is  a  sound  and  good  one? 
It  seems  to  be  lugged  in  to  disguise  the  ''  result" 
which  had  been  attained,  and  to  account  for  the 
very  solemn  introduction  of  the  simple  fact,  which 
is  reached  on  page  15th^  that  the  Committee  has 
another  standard,  and  a  very  different  one,  to  ac- 
count for.  This  they  begin  to  talk  about,  as  fol- 
lows : 

"  The  attention  of  the  Committee  was  first  draA\Ti  to  the  sub- 
ject under  consideration,  at  their  meeting,  Oct.  6th,  1847.  At 
that  time  Mr,  Secretary  Brigham  communicated  to  them,  that 
the  Superintendent  of  printing  found  many  discrepancies  still 
existing  between  our  different  editions  of  the  English  Bible ; 
and  also  between  our  editions  and  those  issued  by  the  British 
and  Foreign  Bible  Society.  Several  specimens  of  such  discrep- 
ancies were  exhibited  to  the  Committee,  relating  mostly  to  the 
use  of  Italic  Woi'ds,  Capiial  Letters,  and  the  Article  a  or  an. 
After  consideration,  the  Committee  referred  the  matter  to  the 
Board  of  Managers  for  counsel  and  direction." 

One  would  think  the  Committee  might  have 
answered,  that  it  was  desirable  that  the  best  of 
the  editions  should  be  followed,  and  that  the  arti- 
cle a  or  mi  was  safe  enough,  in  that  case,  as 
it  had  been  for  the  past  thirty  years.  But,  on 
the  contrary,  after  the  appointment  of  the  Colla- 
tor, they  give  him  nine  rules  of  their  own,  of 
which  several  are  wise  and  unobjectionable^  but 
of  which  others  are,  to  say  the  least,  gratuitous. 
The  Collator  was  ordered,  by  rule  6th,  to  correct 
the  text  by  uniformly  using  an  '-  ^  before  all  vow- 


35 

els  and  diptbongs  not  pronounced  as  consonants, 
and  also  before  A,  silent  or  unaccented,"  using 
tbe  form  a  in  all  otber  cases.  By  rule  4tb,  tbe 
concurrence  and  uniformity  of  tbe  four  Englisb 
copies  (tbe  fiftb  was  Scotcb)  selected  as  standards, 
were  to  be  followed,  unless  otherivise  specially  or- 
dered hy  the  Committee  I  By  rule  3d,  tbe  Collator 
was  to  compare  ^^  tbe  Ortliography ,  Capital  Let- 
ters, Words  in  Italic,  and  Pimctuation,"  of  tbe 
Society's  former  edition,  witb  tbese  standards  : 
but  tbe  Keport  adds  witb  naivete,  in  a  parentbe- 
sis, — ^^  To  tbese  were  added,  in  practice,  tbe  con- 
tents of  tbe  cbapters,  and  tbe  running  beads!'' 
A  pregnant  parentbesis,  it  must  be  allowed !  We 
sball  see  wbat  it  brings  fortb.  On  page  19tb, 
we  reacb  tbe  ^^  Specimens  of  variations,"  (tbese 
words,  printed  in  capitals,)  and  of  ^^  the  changes 
which  they  have  seen  fit  to  adopt  both  in  the  Text 
and  its  Accessories."  Tbis  about  changes,  is 
printed  in  sucb  a  manner  as  to  attract  no  atten- 
tion. But  we  come  at  last  to  tbe. (I)  Text,  under 
its  proper  bead ;  and  bere  we  find  tbat  tbe  Com- 
mittee bave  desired  to  restore  tbe  Englisb  Ver- 
sion to  its  original  purity,  ^^  saving  tbe  necessary 
cbanges  of  ortbograpby,  and  other  like  variations 
which  loould  assuredly  he  acceptable  to  the  transla- 
tors themselves,  ivei^e  they  living  at  the  present 
day  V  Here  one  asks,  naturally,  wby  were  even 
tbese  ortbograpbical  cbanges  necessary  f  We  are 
not  now  dealing  Avitb  tbe  obsolete  ortbograpby 


36 

of  1611,  but  with  that  of  Dr.  Blayney,  which 
nobody  can  complain  of  as  obscure.  Why  is  it 
necessary  J  even  if  it  be  expedient,  to  spell  errour 
without  the  u,  which  belongs  to  it  by  every  law 
of  etymology,  seeing  our  Latin  comes  to  us 
through  the  Normans  ?  Why  is  it  necessary  to 
modernize  the  slightly  antique  spellings  which 
one  occasionally  meets  amid  the  leaves  of  his 
Bible,  and  which  the  humblest  reader  is  willing 
to  see  there.  This,  however,  is  matter  of  taste. 
But  who  can  speak  for  the  venerable  translators, 
when  we  are  assured  what  they  would  have  done 
had  they  been  living  now?  The  signers  of  the 
Keport  are  all  most  respectable  men  ;  I  esteem 
them  highly  for  their  talents  and  Christian  vir- 
tues :  but  I  do  not  think  they  can  be  quite  sure 
what  Bishop  Andrewes  and  others,  almost  his 
equals  in  learning  and  piety,  would  have  done  in 
1851,  to  amend  their  labours  of  three  centuries 
ago.  I  am  hardly  less  surprised  at  what  fol- 
lows:— ^'  The  Committee  have  had  no  authority, 
and  no  desire,  to  go  behind  the  translators  ;  nor  in 
any  respect  to  touch  the  original  version  of  the 
text ;  unless  in  cases  of  evident  inadvertence,  or 
inconsistency,  open  and  manifest  to  all."  Now, 
I  ask,  what  have  the  Committee  to  do  with  the 
translationy  and  its  inconsistencies,  and  inadvert- 
encies ?  Is  it  the  sole  object  of  the  Society  to  im- 
prove the  version  ?  Is  not  its  business  solely  with 
the  inadvertencies  of  printers,  and  the  variations 


37 

of  th^ press?  Is  not  this  'Agoing  behind  the 
translators" — or,  in  other  words  stepping  into 
the  work  of  1611, — strange  business  for  those 
whose  sole  object  is  to  ^^  circulate,"  not  amend, 
the  version,  in  common  use  in  1816? 

Thej  proceed  to  report  several  emendations  ^  ^  on 
the  very  threshold."  In  principle,  the  specimens 
exhibit  a  dangerous  precedent :  but  in  themselves 
are  harmless.  The  variety  which  occurs  in  one 
of  the  refrains  or  antiphons,  of  the  Canticles, 
disappears,  however,  on  insufficient  grounds.  ^^  I 
charge  you,  oh  ye  daughters  of  Jerusalem.  .  .  . 
that  ye  stir  not  up,  nor  awake  my  love  till  He 
please:"  this  (^e  for  she)  has  been  often  used, 
of  our  Lord's  entombment,  in  a  poetical  way 
with  great  effect ;  but  it  is  no  more  to  appear  in  the 
English  Bible,  as  published  by  the  Society.  They 
say  ' '  these  instances  have  of  course  been  corrected 
according  to  the  Hebrew."  But,  why,  of  course? 
Admitting  that  it  should  be  so  corrected,  is  this 
work  of  ^'  correcting,  by  the  Hebrew,"  any  legi- 
timate part  of  the  Society's  business?  If  so, 
where  is  it  to  end?  And  what  becomes  of  its 
^^  sole  object?"  This  is  a  very  serious  matter. 
In  doing  a  like  work  for  the  Church  of  Kome, 
old  Sixtus  y.  could  trust  nobody's  hand  but  his 
own  ;  and  miserable  as  was  the  botch  he  made  of 
it,  it  is  honourable  to  that  corrupt  Church,  that 
the  work  of  correcting  her  standard  Bible  was 
committed  to  the  very  highest  authority  she  ac- 
4 


38 

knowledges.     Are  we  less  scrupulous  as  to  God's 
Word? 

To  say  nothing  of  the  other  instances,  ^^the 
Committee  have  not  hesitated  to  insert  the  defi- 
nite article,"  in  Matt.  xii.  41,  where  '^  all  the 
copies  read  shall  rise  up  in  judgment,  making  it 
read  shall  rise  up  in  the  judgment ."  But  if  ^'all 
the  copies  read  shall  rise  up  in  judgment," 
(which  is  not  the  case  in  any,  so  far  as  up  is  con- 
cerned,) why  is  up  left  out,  and  the  put  in :  for 
so  it  is  in  the  Society's  Bible,  in  the  text  referred 
to  ?  The  up  is  an  example  of  manifest  ' '  inad- 
vertence" in  the  Keport ;  hut  there  is  certainly 
no  need  of  this  petty  amendment  with  respect  to 
the  article.  If  such  things  are  done  in  cases  of 
slight  importance,  they  may  hereafter  he  done  in 
cases  of  vast  importance,  and  no  scholar  need  be 
reminded  of  the  very  great  consequence  of  the 
Greek  article  in  Scripture. 

By  the  way,  to  show  how  quick  they  are  in 
England  to  note  such  changes  as  are  here  made 
light  of,  a  change  lately  crept  into  one  of  the 
Cambridge  Octavo  Bibles,  in  the  text  of  II  Chron- 
icles, xxi.  2.  It  was  the  substitution  of  Judah 
for  Israel,  which  is  plainly  required  by  the  He- 
brew context,  and  sustained  by  the  text  of  the 
Septuagint.  But  other  editions  have  always  had 
it  otherwise,  and  inquiry  was  immediately  set  on 
foot  as  to  the  author  of  the  novelty.  I  marvel 
that  it  does  not  appear  in  the  work  of  this  Com- 
mittee, for  by  their  scheme,  it  ought  to  do  so,  and 


39 


their  rules  cannot  long  be  satisfied  with  instances 
"  so  few  and  far  between." 

Returning  to  orthography ,  it  is  pleasing  to  learn 
that  "  the  Committee  entertain  a  reverence  for 
the  antique  forms  of  words  and  orthography  in 
the  Bible,  where  they  do  not  conflict  with  a  clear 
understanding  of  the  sense."  They  add,  more- 
over, most  forcibly,  '^  It  is  such  forms,  in  a  mea- 
sure, which  impart  an  air  of  dignity  and  vener- 
ableness  to  our  version."  Why  then,  (if  Jiosied 
up  the  mainsail^  and  grqffed  in,  are  retained,  on 
such  grounds,)  are  some  fifty  capricious  altera- 
tions introduced  ?  Why  need  carcases  become 
csiYcassesf  Who  does  not  love  the  sound  word 
throughly,  in  its  place,  now  and  then,  and  not 
always  thoroughly?  For  one,  in  the  Bible,  I 
would  still  see  musich  and  not  music,  and  cucJcow 
instead  of  the  modern  cuckoo.  Why  change  a 
sacred  text,  in  such  a  fanciful  way?  They  tell  us 
that  ^ '  by  far  the  greater  portion  of  the  readers  of 
the  English  Bible  are  unlearned  persons  and  chil- 
dren, and  it  is  essential  to  remove  everything,  in 
the  mere  form,  which  may  become  to  any  a  stum- 
bling-block in  the  way  of  the  right  and  prompt 
understanding  of  God's  Holy  Word."  But  will 
any  old  lady  suffer  from  not  getting  a  ' '  promj^t 
understanding"  of  the  sense,  when  she  reads  that 
Jacob's  rams  were  ringst^^aJced  and  not  ring- 
streahed  f  Or  cannot  any  child  understand  the 
word  horse  bridles  in  the  Apocalypse  ?     Yet  the 


40 

Committee  mend  these  faultless  words,  and  fortify 
their  reading — Jiorses'  bridles — with  the  important 
assurance  that  it  is  '^  so  in  the  Greek." 

Again,  what  makes  it  necessary  to  change  the 
utter  court  in  Ezekiel,  to  the  outer  court?  We 
shall  have,  next  time,  ^^  the  uttermost  parts  of 
the  earth"  modernized  into  ^^the  outermost." 
One  is  hardly  ready  to  hid  farewell  to  the  old 
form  lift  (instead  of  lifted,)  still  familiar,  in  the 
Psalter,  to  every  Churchman ;  and  as  for  astonied, 
who  would  drop  it  in  the  narrative  of  Daniel  ? 
Yet  it  goes.  Even  the  Edinhurgh  Keview  cannot 
hut  hlame  Dr.  Blayney  for  the  few  changes  he 
made  in  1769  ;  and  the  reviewer  actually  pauses 
in  the  full  tide  of  his  grumhling  against  the  Ee- 
ceived  Text,  to  say  of  these  emendations,  that 
^^  it  was  a  hold  and  hardly  warrantahle  measure, 
though  it  extended  no  farther  than  printing  more 
for  moe  ;  midst  for  mids  ;  owneth  for  owetli ;  jaws 
for  chaws  ;  alien  for  alient,  &c."  If  it  was  hold 
to  make  these  changes  in  the  spelling  of  words  so 
disguised,  as  almost  to  require  relief  from  such 
obscurity,  what  shall  he  said  of  far  more  radical 
emendations  made  by  persons  occupying  a  purely 
private  position,  as  compared  with  the  semi-autho- 
ritative one  of  Dr.  Blayney? 

But  another  old  landmark  is  removed  by  the 
petty  and  pedantic  alteration  of  the  old  forms, 
which  add  a  superfluous  s  to  the  Hebrew  plural. 
Who  does  not  love  the  quaintness  of  the  forms 


41 

anakirtis,  cheritbims,  &c.?  It  is  familiar  in  Shaks- 
peare,  in  the  improper  singular — 

" thou  rose-lipped  cherubim  !" 

Everybody  knows  this  is  not  Hebrew ;  but  then  it 
is  English  ;  and  if  it  ^'  is  not  in  accordance  with 
present  usage, ' '  it  was  in  accordance  with  the  usage 
of  such  men  as  Bishop  Andrewes  in  1611,  and  was 
part  of  the  version  in  1816.  Why  sweep  away 
these  Bible  roughnesses,  which  are  full  of  strength, 
if  not  of  the  trimness  and  precision  which  belong 
to  modern  pedantry  ? 

The  use  of  the  0  for  the  sign  of  the  vocative, 
and  of  the  form  Oh  for  that  of  the  optative,  ap- 
pears judicious  and  admissible  ;  but  one  word 
more  may  be  said  of  the  rules  as  to  a  or  an.  The 
h  in  humble  (see  Prov.  xvi.  19)  is  made  a  silent 
h  according  to  the  scheme  of  the  Committee,  for 
they  retain  the  an.  Though  it  was  there  before, 
if  proved  nothing  in  the  old  Bibles,  because  no 
such  law  was  adopted  by  the  translators,  who  use 
an  before  the  aspirate,  as  in  the  instances,  an 
harlot,  an  house,  an  hairy  man.  But  from  the 
Society's  Bible  we  learn  that  the  h  in  humble  is 
silent ;  so  that  they  have  endorsed  a  mere  cock- 
neyism,  which,  though  tolerated  by  some  orthoe- 
pists,  is  not  the  usage  of  educated  Englishmen. 

We  now  come  to  proper  names  in  the  old  Testa- 
ment ;  in  which  point  ^  ^  the  Committee  have  not 

felt  themselves  aicthorized  to  introduce  any  change; 
4* 


42 

regarding  the  great  principle  of  uniformity  in 'the 
copies  as  of  higher  importance."     It  is  to  be  re- 
gretted that  this  ^^  great  principle"  has  been  dis- 
regarded in  the  much  more  important  case  of  the 
New  Testament.     Everybody  is  aware  of  the  fact, 
that  ^^  the  translators  did  not  retain  the  names  of 
persons  already  known  in  the  Old  Testament,  in 
the  form  in  which  they  had  thus  become  familiar. 
But  I  am  not  so  sure  that  this  is  '  ^  to  be  regret- 
ted."    As  a  pastor,  I  have  found  this  fact  to  fur- 
nish the  most  ready  key  to  the  perceptions  of  the 
unlettered,  when  I  have  wished  to  explain  to  them 
the  truth  that  God  was  pleased  to  employ  different 
languages,  in  conveying  the  Gospel,   under  the 
Old  and  the  New  Law.     It  is  of  some  consequence 
to  make  the  common  reader /ee?  the  Greek  in  his 
New  Testament :  at  least,  if  any  Christian  pas- 
tor is  persuaded  of  this,  the  Bible  Society  has  no 
right  to  Judaize  his  New  Testament,  and  so  de- 
cide against  him.     I  cheerfully  concede   that  in 
the  Greek  form  of  Joshua,  which  is  the  familiar 
name  of  our  Blessed  Lord,  there  is  a  difficulty  to 
the  ordinary  apprehension.     Yet  in  one  instance, 
it  is  explained  in  the  margin  by  the  translators 
themselves  ;  and  I  have  often  found  the  instance 
of  use,  in  explaining  to  a  Bible-class  the  truth 
that  our  Lord  condescended  to  bear  the  humble 
human  name  of  Joshua,  and  that  Joshua  was  a 
signal  type  of  his  Lord,  in  this,  as  in  other  par- 
ticulars.    The  Grsecised  proper  names  of  the  New 


43 

Testament   are,    in   all   other   cases,    sufficiently 
plain  to  be  understood  by  any  one  intelligently 
reading  the  Scriptures,  especially  with  the  refer- 
ences ;  and,  for  one,  I  protest  against  the  Hebra- 
ized look,  which  the  novelty  gives  to  one's  Testa- 
ment.    As  a  matter  of  mere  taste  I  prefer  to  see 
Siorij  and  not  ZioUj  in  the  New  Testament,  be- 
cause the  latter  form  has  a  territorial  and  geo- 
graphical  association.      Thus,    in   that   glorious 
text,  '^Ye  are  come  unto  Mount  Sion,"  the  form 
Zion  seems  to  remove  it  from  identity  with  ^Hhe 
heavenly  Jerusalem."     The  fact  is,  God  seems  to 
have  provided  the  G-reek,  as  new  bottles  for  new 
wine,  and  one  feels  the  propriety  of  its  idioms, 
where  a  new  and  celestial  inheritance  comes  into 
view.     I  am  not  sorry  to  meet  Osee,  and  Noe  and 
Sara  and  Juda,  in  the  New  Testament ;  for  the 
bare  dropping  of  superfluities  might  seem  a  sym- 
bol of  their  baptism  into  the  freedom  of  the  New 
Covenant,  and  of  the  ^^  newness  of  spirit"  which 
has  succeeded  the  oldness  of  the  letter.     I  admit 
this  is  matter  of  taste  ;  but  one  has  a  right  to 
be  pleased  with  harmless  things  as  they  are,  and 
to  object  to  even  harmless  changes.    If  a  competent 
authority  should  place  the  original  Hebrew  names 
in  the  margin,  I  doubt  not,  all  would  be  satisfied  ; 
but  the  text,  the  text,  let  us  have  it  as  our  fathers 
left   it !     Progress  is  a  good  thing  in  a  proper 
place  ;  but  this  sewing  of  a  new  patch  here  and 


44 

there,  ^^  on  raiment  of  wrought  gold/'  must  strike 
sensitive  minds  as  a  species  of  sacrilege. 

As  to  the  italic  words,  the  Committee  seem  to 
have  dealt  wisely ;  and  so,  perhaps,  with  regard 
to  the  parenthesis.  Yet,  in  sweeping  out  such  a 
parenthesis  as  occurs  in  Rom.  v.  13 — 17,  there  is 
' '  force  of  commentary  ' '  at  least  on  the  version  in 
common  use  in  1816.  In  Gal.  i.  1,  and  Rev.  ii.  9, 
the  parenthesis  is  useful,  and  its  loss  will  be  felt. 
As  to  the  brackets,  I  John  ii.  23, 1  rejoice  that  they 
are  removed,  and  the  reason  is  good  ;  but  I  am 
not  sure  that  the  Committee  had  any  more  right 
to  do  it,  than  they  would  have  to  remove  the 
Park-fence,  and  open  the  City-Hall  to  the  ap- 
proach of  ordinary  carriages. 

But  now  we  come  to  the  crux  of  the  whole 
affair,  and  we  are  sorry  to  find  it  disguised,  or  at 
least  slurred  over  as  a  matter  of  no  more  moment 
than  the  minor  matters  among  which  it  is  thrown. 
Why  not  come  out  boldly,  and  say,  to  begin  with, 
that  ' '  we  have  altered  the  received  text  in  Jive 
very  important  instances."  Everybody  knows 
that  there  is  no  text  vital  to  Gospel  truth  which 
may  not  be  evacuated  of  its  sense  by  the  change 
of  a  point.  The  Nicene  Creed,  itself,  evaporates 
in  verbiage,  if  an  iota  be  inserted  in  one  of  its 
words,  and  to  destroy  such  an  iota  Athanasius  con- 
tended against  the  world,  till  he  had  put  to  flight 
'^the  armies  of  the  aliens,"  and  saved  the  royal- 
ties of  his  Master.     Now  let  every  earnest  Chris- 


45 

tian  read  what  follows,  and  say,  even  if  the  Com- 
mittee be  right  in  their  exegesis,  whether  he  is  will- 
ing to  submit  such  vital  matters  to  the  dogmatism 
of  any  man,  or  any  set  of  men,  whether  they  be 
Popes,  Lords,  or  Brethren  !  The  Bible  in  com- 
mon use  in  1816  was  agreed  upon,  and  the  Socie- 
ty's ^' sole  object"  was  to  circulate  thsit.  The  Com- 
mittee have  made  divers  changes,  but  they  say : 

"  The  following  five  changes  made  in  the  punctuation,  are  all, 
ii  is  believed,  which  affect  the  sense  : 

(1.) 
"  Rom.  4,  1.  '  that  Abraham,  our  father,  as  pertaining  to  the 
flesh  hath  found,'  Here,  according  to  the  order  of  the  Greek, 
it  should  read :  '  hath  found  as  pertaining  to  the  flesh.'  The 
true  pointing,  therefore,  is  a  comma  after  Abraham,  and  ano- 
ther after  father.     This  is  found  in  no  edition  hiiherio, 

(2.) 
''  1  Cor.  16,  22.     '  let  him  be  Anathema.     Maran  atha.'    There 
should  be  a  period  after  Anathema  which  no  edition  inserts,. 
The  two  words  '  Maran  atha'  are  simply  an  Aramaean  for- 
mula signifying  *  The  Lokd  cometh  ;'  compare  Phil.  4,  5. 

(3.) 

"  2  Cor.  10,  8-11.  All  the  copies  now  have  a  colon  after  v.  8, 
and  a  period  after  v.  9,  connecting  the  two  verses  in  sense. 
The  true  pointing,  however,  is  a  period  after  v.  8,  and  then  a 
colon  after  v.  9  and  also  v.  10  ;  thus  connecting  v.  9  as  pro- 
tasis with  V.  11  as  apodosis.  So  Chrysostom,  and  so  the 
Syriac  and  Latin  versions  ;  and  this  is  required  by  the  logical 
sequence. 

(4.) 

'•'  Heb.  13,  7.  Here  should  be  a  period  at  the  end  of  the  verse 
after  'conversation.'  So  the  translators,  the  Oxford,  and 
other  copies.  The  Edinburgh  and  American  have  sometimes 
a  colon,  and  sometimes  a  comma. 


46 


(5.) 
"  Rev.  13,  8.  Here  a  comma  is  inserted  after  •  slain  ;'  since  the 
qualification  '  from  the  foundation  of  the  world'  refers  not  to 
'  slain,'  but  to  '  written ;'  as  is  shown  by  the  parallel  verse, 
Rev.  17,  8.  The  translators  wrongly  insert  a  comma  after 
*  Lamb ;'  others  put  no  stop  at  all." 

Now  any  changes  which  affect  the  sense,  are 
changes  which  no  private  person  has  a  right  to 
make  in  the  Standard  Bihle  ;  yet  here  the  whole 
gravamen  is  coolly  acknowledged :  liahemus  confi- 
tentem  reum.  Let  us  examine  the  new  Bible,  and 
see  what  becomes  of  our  old  faith.  (1.)  As  to 
Kom.  iv.  1.  everybody  will  respect  the  criticism 
as  such,  and  take  it  for  what  it  is  worth.  But 
are  there  not  hundreds  of  texts  which  might  be 
treated  similarly,  if  such  criticism  is  to  intrude 
into  our  standards,  and  not  to  confine  itself  to 
professed  commentaries?  A  certain  Dr.  Conquest 
lately  made  himself  notorious  as  a  conqueror, 
taking  the  Scriptures  by  storm,  and  publishing  a 
^' Bible  with  20,000  emendations."  The  new 
''  Baptist  Version,"  too,  has  been  enough  laughed 
at ;  but  where  is  the  full  stop  to  come,  if  we 
begin  thus  to  deal  with  commas?  How  cool  is 
the  remark  of  the  Committee,  after  laying  down 
the  law  as  to  the  true  pointing — ''  This  is  found 
in  no  edition,  hitherto  ! ' ' 

(2.)  The  next  case  is  a  very  serious  one.  It 
might  do  very  well  in  a  professed  commentary  ; 
though  even  there  it  would  be  contradicted,  and 


47 

grammarians  would  still  keep  up  the  litigation. 
For  one,  I  don't  believe  it  is  correct,  and  if  ^'  no 
edition  inserts  the  period,"  what  right  have  the 
Committee  to  put  it  there  ?  It  is  the  opinion  of 
some  that  the  formula  Anathema  Maranatha  might 
be  rendered  '■'-  Let  him  be  accursed  ivlien  the  Lord 
Cometh."  If  such  be  wrong  it  is  not  the  Com- 
mittee's business  to  alter  the  text,  and  decide 
against  them.  The  Vulgate  pointing  is  a  comma 
before  Maranatha.  Let  the  reader  recur  to  the 
language  of  the  Committee  and  see  whether  there 
is  no  "  note  or  comment"  in  this  pontifical  ^^  Ana- 
thema." 

(3.)  In  the  next  case  the  committee  plead  the 
Latin,  because  it  happens  to  be  with  them  ;  but 
we  have  seen  that  it  is  of  little  moment  when  it  is 
against  them ;  Let  us  allow  that  the  pointing  is 
justifiable,  critically.  They  own  that  "all  the 
copies  "  read  otherwise.  Have  they  any  authority 
to  introduce  the  Vulgate  pointing,  on  critical 
grounds  into  the  English  Bible  ? 

(4.)  In  the  next  case,  though,  for  one,  I  have 
been  taught  to  read  the  text  as  restored,  it  is  a 
favourite  and  a  very  important  passage  with  many 
divines  who  are  accustomed  to  read  it  otherwise. 
Such  will  not  thank  the  Committee  for  abridging 
their  liberty  by  a  change  which  may  be  regarded 
as  at  least  unnecessary  ;  but  they  claim  the  origi- 
nal edition,  and  if  equal  judgment  had  been  al- 


48 

ways  observed,  in   their  changes,  no  one   could 
have  censured  them. 

(5.)  But  the  next  instance  will  shock  every 
Evangelical  believer.  Will  it  be  believed  that 
the  Committee  have  ventured  to  tamper  with  the 
great  beauty  and  force  of  Kev.  xiii.  8,  so  as  to 
take  away  the  devotional  and  doctrinal  use  of 
it,  forever,  and  to  leave  us  no  such  text  as 
'^The  Lamb  slain  from  the  foundation  of  the 
World  ! ' '  They  not  only  insert  a  comma  after 
slain,  to  divide  it  from  what  follows,  but  dogmati- 
cally pronounce  that  what  follows  does  not  belong 
to  "the  Lamb  slain,"  but  only  to  the  names  of 
his  followers  ! 

They  justify  themselves  by  a  reference  which 
proves  nothing  against  the  received  text,  in  this 
case,  for  every  Bible  student  knows  how  many 
and  rich  are  the  varieties  even  in  the  coinciden- 
ces of  Scripture.  They  presume  to  say,  moreover,, 
that  ^  ^  the  translators  wrongly  insert  a  comma 
after  Lamb."  If  this  is  not  "going  behind  the 
translators,"  and  shoving  them  into  the  ditch, 
besides,  I  know  not  how  to  characterize  it.  The 
Vulgate  sustains  the  old  pointing — quorum  non 
sunt  scripta  nomina  in  lihro  vitce  Agni,  qui  occisus 
est  ah  origine  mundi.  Few  texts  are  dearer  to  the 
devout,  and  it  is  a  proof  text  with  theologians. 
Bishop  Pearson  cites  it  twice  in  his  work  on  the 
Creed.  "  As  he  was  the  Lamb  slain  from  the  foun- 
dation of  the  world,"  says  he,  "so  all  atonements 


49 

which  were  ever  made,  were  only  effectual  by  His 
Blood."  Besides,  the  same  thing  is  said  by  St, 
Peter,  (I  Pet.  i.  20,)  who  speaks  of  ^^  the  precious 
blood  of  Christ,  as  of  a  Lamb  without  blemish  and 
without  spot,  who  verily  was  foreordained  before 
the  foundation  of  the  world."  How  indelicate 
the  assumption,  which  forbids  us  to  understand 
St.  John,  as  repeating  the  same  truth,  when  he 
uses  almost  the  same  words  !  The  text  is  one 
which  reflects  a  glorious  light  from  the  last  pages 
of  Scripture  up  to  the  first,  and  defines  Jesus 
Christ  as  the  alpha  and  omega  of  the  Bible.  The 
altar  of  Abel,  and  the  sacrifice  of  Abraham,  in 
Grenesis,  are  thus  identified  with  the  Lamb  of  the 
Apocalypse ;  and  the  text,  as  received,  adds  sig- 
nificance to  the  passage  in  which  we  read  of  the 
'  ^  Song  of  Moses  and  the  Lamb. ' '  I  greatly  mis- 
conceive the  amount  of  devout  affection  to  this 
time-honoured  Scripture,  which  exists  among 
American  Christians,  and  among  the  members  of 
the  Society  itself,  if  this  perversion  of  the  Word  of 
God,  will  be  patiently  submitted  to. 

The  operation  of  the  Society's  rule  as  to  capitals 
is  not  always  more  happy.  In  three  instances 
out  of  four,  which  are  given  in  the  Report,  there 
seems  nothing  to  object  to,  but  the  last  touches  a 
point  of  vital  importance  to  orthodoxy.  In  Rev. 
iv.  5,  the  Committee  have  reduced  the  capital 
letter  of  the  text,  denoting  the  uncreated  Spirit, 
to  a  small  5,  denoting  something  inferior.  The 
5 


50 

'^  seven  Spirits  of  God"  is  but  another  name  for 
the  Spirit  J  whose  gifts  are  sevenfold,  as  we  learn 
from  Isaiah.  The  great  proof  of  the  Trinity, 
which  resides  in  the  formula  of  Baptism,  and  in 
the  benediction  of  St.  Paul,  is  made  void,  if  infe- 
rior spirits  may  be  joined  with  those  of  the  Father 
and  the  Son.  Such  an  understanding  of  the  text 
would  go  far,  moreover,  to  justify  the  Komish  ir- 
reverence which  joins  St.  Michael  and  St.  Mary 
with  the  Blessed  Trinity  in  devotional  acts.  If 
the  Seven  Spirits  be  but  Angels,  and  a  blessing 
comes  from  them  (to  the  exclusion  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,)  when  the  Father  and  the  Son  are  both 
named,  the  conclusion  is  inevitable  that  the  Son 
also  may  be  an  inferior  spirit,  or  that  the  name 
of  St.  Michael  may  be  coupled  with  His,  without 
confusion,  or  idolatry.  The  Baptists  have  already 
objected  to  this  extraordinary  change,  in  words 
not  to  be  gainsayed.  '^  The  Society's  interpreta- 
tion of  the  term/'  say  they  '^  weakens  and  dark- 
ens the  sublimest  formula  of  benediction  to  be 
found  in  Scripture."  Undoubtedly  it  does,  for 
the  Society  has  not  left  the  small  letter  to  itself, 
but  dressed  it  out  with  significance.  If  a  small 
letter  was  used  by  the  translators,  (which  is  not 
the  case,  if  Bagster's  professed  reprint  can  be  de- 
pended on,)  they  did  not  act  under  the  Society's 
rule,  which  makes  the  small  letter  a  comment.  It 
is  all  one  with  the  small  letter  in  the  parallel  pas- 
sage of  Isaiah.    But  the  Bible  in  ^^  common  use/' 


51 

in  1816,  had  the  capital,  and  when  the  Society 
gives  a  reason  for  the  small  s,  which  makes  it  in- 
terpretative, the  change  becomes  a  matter  of  the 
most  serious  character.  '^  The  word  Spirit,  every- 
where, is  made  to  begin  with  a  capital  when  it 
refers  to  tlie  Spirit  of  God  as  a  divine  agent ;  but 
not  when  it  denotes  other  spiritual  beings,  or  the 
spirit  of  man."  Such  is  their  rule,  and  then  fol- 
lows their  instance,  thus  : — 

English  Copies.  I  Corrected. 

Rev.  iv.  5,  seven  Spirits  of  God.  |  seven  spirits  of  God. 

So  then  these  seven  spirits  are  pronounced  to  be 
^^  other  spiritual  beings  than  the  Spirit  of  God  as  a 
Divine  agent,  or  the  spirit  of  man!"  The  result 
is  painful.  We  read,  indeed,  of  ^^ seven  other 
spirits"  answering  to  this  description,  in  St. 
Matthew,  (xii.  45,)  but  they  are  the  spirits  of 
Satan.  And  as  if  this  meddling  were  not  enough, 
we  find  that  it  not  only  destroys  the  text  thus 
instanced,  but  goes  back  to  the  Old  Testament, 
and  disturbs  the  passage  in  Isaiah.  Let  us  see: 
"the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  shall  rest  upon  him;  the 
spirit  of  wisdom  and  understanding,  the  spirit  of 
counsel  and  might,"  &c. — Is.  xi.  2.  But  for  the 
Society's  rule,  there  is  nothing  to  object  to,  in 
this  place.  The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  first  named 
in  His  person,  and  then  in  His  operations;  and 
and  the  small  s  detracts  nothing  from  His  divinity 
or   power.     But,  as  printed  under  the  Society's 


52 

rule,  the  reader  is  informed  that  ^Hhe  Spirit  of 
the  Lord"  is  one  thing,  and  the  '^spirit  of  wis- 
dom" another!  All  these  spirits,  with  a  small 
s,  ^^  denote  other  spiritual  beings  or  the  sj^irit  of 
man!"  Was  confusion  ever  worse  confounded? 
I  submit  it  to  the  judgment  of  devout  and  rea- 
sonable men,  whether,  at  any  time,  the  intrusion 
of  such  novelties  into  a  standard,  on  mere  indi- 
vidual responsibility,  is  not  most  dangerous.  But 
if,  at  any  time,  more  especially  at  this  time, 
when  a  great  portion  of  our  country  is  witness  to 
the  most  alarming  theological  progress  towards 
the  Eationalism  of  Germany.  In  New  England, 
all  things  denote  the  advance  of  a  thoroughly 
unevangelical  spirit,  which  has  possessed  itself  of 
the  chief  seats  of  learning  and  which  is  success- 
fully contending  with  the  few  old-fashioned  rep- 
resentatives of  a  superior  orthodoxy^  that  are  left 
among  the  descendants  of  the  Puritans.  If  the 
evil  spirit  has  been  exorcised  from  its  German 
haunts,  it  is  evident  that  it  is  seeking  rest  in 
America.  And  what  was  the  history  of  its  growth 
in  Germany?  The  school  of  Semler  was  founded 
on  a  religious  basis,  the  precise  counterpart  of 
that  which  already  exists  in  our  own  country :  on 
the  basis  of  just  such  innovations  in  recognized 
standards,  as  the  American  Bible  Society  are  now 
making.  And  in  proof  of  this  I  rejoice  to  cite  an* 
authority  which  no  one  will  despise;  the  testi- 
mony of  the  late  Professor  Patton,  my  revered 


53 

preceptor  in  the  University  of  New  York,  and  a 
most  pious,  as  well  as  a  most  erudite  man.  Speak- 
ing of  Semler,  some  thirty  years  ago,  in  a  paper 
which  he  contributed  to  the  ^^  Biblical  Eeper- 
tory,"  he  says: 

"Several  causes  had  been  operating,  for  some  years  before 
his  appearance,  through  whose  instrumentaUty  the  theologians 
and  the  philosophers  of  Germany  were  predisposed  to  the  cor- 
dial adoption,  and  the  industrious  application  of  his  principles. 
We  allude  to  the  want  which  the  Protestant  Churches  experi- 
enced of  controul  over  the  wildest  and  most  licentious  spirit  of 
innovation ;  the  loss  of  respect  for  their  symbolical  books,  the 
misguided  zeal  of  the  Pietists  who  maintained  that  Christianity 
consisted  solely  in  virtue,  and  the  consequent  reaction  which 
produced  a  philosophical,  and  even  a  mathematical,  school  of 
theology ;  and  finally,  the  disposition  to  employ  this  very  philo- 
sophy to  explain  away,  and  soften  down  the  more  obnoxious 
doctrines,  and  to  elevate  the  unassisted  efforts  of  human  reason 
to  a  supremacy  in  matters  of  religion  which  it  poorly  merits." 

In  a  day  when  the  New  York  Tribune  is  the 
Bible  of  thousands  of  our  countrymen;  when 
magnetism  is  the  highest  spiritualism  of  thou- 
sands more;  when  gigantic  elements  of  evil, 
which  have  no  name^  are  visible  in  our  great 
West;  and  when  the  subtleties  of  Dr.  Bushnell 
represent  the  better  phase  of  the  rationalism  of 
New  England,  can  it  be  wise  to  insert  the  sharp 
end  of  the  critical  wedge  into  the  Standard  Bible? 
Can  even  these  few  alterations  of  the  Scriptures 
in  common  use,  be  looked  upon  with  indiffer- 
ence? 

5* 


54 

We  come  to  further  improvements.  With  re- 
gard to  (II.)  The  accessories  of  the  Text,  the 
Committee  give  notice,  at  the  outset,  that  they 
mean  to  be  bold;  for  they  say — ^'We,  here  tread 
on  different  ground."  Everybody  will  concede 
this,  in  a  degree.  It  is  different  ground;  but 
have  the  Committee  any  right  to  be  treading  on 
any  ground,  from  which  they  are  fenced  off,  by 
the  sole  object  of  their  Society  ?  For  their  emen- 
dations of  the  text,  they  might  plead  that  a  pure 
text  is  within  their  province  ;  but  if  the  acces- 
sories be  of  the  nature  of  '^note  and  comment," 
as  they  proceed  to  show,  they  have  nothing  to  do 
with  them,  on  any  pretext,  unless  it  be  to  throw 
them  all  overboard.  How  can  note  and  comment 
be  radically  altered  and  amended,  without  the 
creation  of  a  new  commentary?  Let  any  one 
compare  the  new  standard  with  that  of  1816,  and 
see  if  the  comparison  does  not  furnish  the  most 
ruthless  commentary  on  the  latter.  The  question 
arises  at  once,  '^what  do  these  changes  mean?" 
and  one  cannot  be  long  in  finding  out  that  the 
result,  at  least,  is  this,  that  the  Bible  shall  not 
be  regarded  as  meaning  anything  definitely  and 
unquestionably:  it  shall  '^give  an  uncertain 
sound." 

As  to  marginal  readings,  the  Society  have  taken 
a  bold  liberty  with  Matthew  xxviii.  19.  Other  in- 
stances are  so  petty  that  one  fancies  they  are  merely 
designed  to  cover  the  comment  on  Acts  xii.  4,  by 


55 

which  the  word  ^^  Easter'*  is  neutralized.  It  is  a 
just  comment,  and  I  only  object  to  it  as  coming  from 
those  who  are  pledged  to  give  no  comment.  If 
they  had  decorated  I  Cor.  v.  8,  '^therefore  let  us 
keep  the  feast/'  with  the  note  ^^i.  e.  Easter,"  it 
would  have  been  equally  just,  but  still  unpardon- 
able: and  even  if  they  had  improved  Kev.  i.  20, 
^^the  angels  of  the  seven  churches,  by  adding 
^H.  e.  bishops,"  I  should  have  objected  not  the 
less. 

It  may  be  imagined  that  the  headings  of  the 
chapters  are  matter  of  comparatively  small  conse- 
quence: and  as  compared  with  the  Sacred  Text, 
they,  undoubtedly,  are.  Still,  the  sanctity  of 
the  text  makes  this  accessory  very  important.  It 
is  neither  the  hallowed  censer,  nor  the  incense  of 
the  sanctuary,  but  it  may  be  the  element  that 
makes  the  incense  burn,  and  it  should  not  be 
*' strange  fire.  '  As  matter  of  fact,  these  head- 
ings have  come  down  to  us  with  our  Bible ;  we 
have  read  them  there,  ever  since  we  first  knew  the 
Holy  Scriptures  ;  and  any  change  puts  a  new  face 
on  the  old  Bible.  The  new  Book  is  a  strange 
book.  Even  allowing  it  to  be  an  improvement — 
Nolumus  mutari.  The  old  is  good  enough  ;  it  has 
satisfied  all,  for  ages  ;  it  has  satisfied  the  Bible 
Society  for  thirty  years  ;  there  is  no  fault  to  be 
found  with  it,  as  a  whole  ;  the  few  blemishes  do 
not  amount  even  to  spots  on  its  bright  disc ;  no 
one    would    discover    them,    unless    some    wise- 


56 

acre  should  take  the  pains  to  help  him ;  and 
all  together  they  constitute  no  ohjection  to  a  work 
80  long  and  so  universally  approved.  And  more- 
over, the  altering  of  these  heads  makes  the  So- 
ciety's Bihle  a  different  Book  from  that  which  the 
British  and  Foreign  Bihle  Society  is  sending 
through  all  the  world ;  and  the  Anglo-Saxon  race 
are  no  longer  reading  and  loving  one  and  the  same 
hook.  This  is  an  ohjection  to  the  whole  scheme, 
which  no  thoughtful  mind  will  lightly  dismiss. 

But  if  any  change  he  ohjectionahle,  I  conceive 
that  the  actual  changes  introduced  hy  the  Society 
are  almost  as  evil  as  any  change  could  he,  pro- 
ceeding from  good  men  with  honest  intentions. 
They  consist  not  in,  here  and  there,  an  emenda- 
tion, hut  in  a  vast  system  of  alteration,  and  of 
thorough  suhstitution,  characterized,  from  first  to 
last,  hy  a  dehased  orthodoxy,  rationalistic  tenden- 
cies, and  a  general  aversion  to  the  evangelical 
and  jDrimitive  modes  of  thought  which  character- 
ize the  old  Bible, 

To  make  a  few  specifications,  out  of  many  that 
might  he  established,  I  would  instance: — 

1.  The  entire  exclusion  of  the  words  ^'Christ" 
and  "Church"  from  the  Old  Testament  headings, 
and  partially  from  the  New. 

This  is  a  feature  of  vast  significance.  Nothing 
is  more  valuable  to  the  ordinary  reader,  as  giving 
him  a  clue  to  the  fact  that  the  Old  and  New  Tes- 
taments are  one  Gospel,  than  the  great  system 


57 


which  runs  through  the  old  headings.  In  them, 
Christ  is  everywhere,  from  the  Psalter  to  the 
Apocalypse.  In  the  Society's  headings,  CimiST  is 
nowhere.  Even  in  the  New  Testament,  the  old 
familiar  phrases,  Christ's  passion,  Christ's  resur- 
rection and  the  like,  running  along  the  top  of  the 
page,  and  clustering  over  the  heads  of  chapters, 
are  generall}^  stricken  out.  We  have  instead,  Je- 
sus is  crucified,  The  resurrection  of  Jesus.  I  know 
that  to  a  heliever  this  is  all  the  same,  for  sense ; 
and  to  him  the  name  of  Jesus  is  the  adorable 
name  at  which  he  bows  his  knee.  But  it  is  not 
the  same^  by  any  means,  to  all  for  whose  evangeliz- 
ing the  Gospel  is  sent.  The  Jews  are  willing  to 
allow  that  Jesus  was  crucified ;  but  Christ  Cruci- 
fied is  what  Paul  preached  unto  them  as  their 
stumbling  block.  The  Jews  always  speak  of  our 
Saviour  as  ^' Jesus  of  Nazareth,"  but  it  was  an 
old  law  of  theirs,  that  '^if  any  man  did  confess 
that  he  was  Christ,  he  should  be  put  out  of  the 
synagogue."  I  am  sorry  to  see  this  law  so  pro- 
foundly reverenced  in  the  Society's  Grospel.  Let 
any  one  compare  the  old  and  the  new  headings, 
and  see  how  thoroughly  the  latter  are  Judaized. 
^^That  worthy  name  by  which  we  are  called," 
the  name  of  Christ,  which  make  us  Christians, 
seems  to  have  been  peculiarly  obnoxious  to  the 
Society's  critics.  A  similar  taste  is  fashionable 
among  Socinians.  They  name  the  name  of  Jesus, 
as  they  speak  of  Confucius  or  Plato.    May  God  save 


58 

our  children  from  being  taught  in  their  very 
Bibles,  the  irreverence,  which  led  a  Socinian 
minister,  not  long  ago,  to  publish  a  work  entitled 
^^  Jesus  and  His  Biographers,"  meaning  thereby 
our  Lord  and  His  Holy  Evangelists ! 

It  is  useless  to  say  that  Messiah  and  Christ  are 
all  the  same  thing.  So  they  are  to  a  believer, 
and  so  they  are  critically.  But  practically  they 
are  very  different.  Christ  and  Christian  are 
words  which  cannot  be  separated.  Christ  means 
Jesus  of  Nazareth,  for  no  one  else  has  ever  borne 
the  name  in  its  Greek  form.  But  Messiah  is  in- 
definite. The  Jew  has  no  objection  to  allow  that 
the  45th  psalm  means  Messiah,  that  is,  Solomon, 
as  the  anointed  of  the  Lord.  But  the  old  head- 
ing, ^Hhe  Majesty  and  Grace  of  Christ's  King- 
dom," is  something  which  they  disavow.  Ac- 
cordingly, they  are  gratified  by  the  Society,  who 
make  it  "the  majesty  and  grace  of  the  Messiah." 
This  reconciles  the  dispute.  The  sword  has 
passed  through  the  living  child,  and  of  course  all 
parties  will  be  satisfied.  Nay — God  forbid !  The 
true  believer  has  instincts  that  cry  out  against  a 
compromise  that  destroys  what  is  dearer  to  his 
heart  than  life,  even  the  truth  of  God's  Word, 
its  spirit  as  well  as  its  letter. 

2.  The  report  treats  us  to  fifteen  specimens 
of  the  changes  introduced.  We  may  presume 
that  they  are  favourable  specimens:  yet  among 
them  we  find  as  gross  a  blunder  as  could  well 


59 

have  been  committed  by  the  most  careless  reader 
of  the  Bible.  Such  a  blunder,,  however,  is  not 
only  made,  but  actually  exhibited  in  triumph,  as 
an  improvement  in  the  matter  of  removing  what 
is  ^^ quaint,  obselete,  and  ambiguous."  Thus,  we 
have  it,  then : — 

Numbers  3,  "  The  first-born  are  freed  by  the  Levites." 
Con-eciion.     "  The  first-born  are  iaJcen  instead  of  the  Levites." 

A  marvellous  correction!  since  it  contradicts 
the  very  words  of  Scripture  to  which  it  refers,  and 
the  fact,  familiar  to  every  Biblical  student,  nay  to 
every  well  informed  Christian,  that  the  Levites 
were  taken  instead  of  the  first-born!  Here  surely, 
we  are  not  reviewing  the  work  of  Dr.  Turner,  nor 
of  Dr.  Robinson:  but  how  these  gentlemen  could 
ever  have  subscribed  their  names  to  such  a  speci- 
men of  improvement,  and  correction,  may  well  be 
matter  of  surprise.  The  case  would  be  less  fla- 
grant were  it  not  that  the  errour  involves  the 
most  profound  ignorance  of  the  history  of  the 
Levitical  tribe,  and  of  the  origin  of  its  sacerdotal 
character.  This  freeing  of  the  first-born,  by  the 
Levites,  was  a  solemn  anticipation  of  the  Great 
Melchisedec,  as  the  first-born  of  Mary,  by  which  it 
was  provided  that  he  should  not  be  a  priest  of  the 
Law,  but  should  ^  ^pertain  to  another  tribe,  of  which 
no  man  gave  attendance  at  the  altar."  Now  I 
am  far  from  believing  that  there  are  many  such 
blunders,  and  this  one,  I  rejoice  to  say,  seems  to 


60 

have  been  discovered  and  corrected  before  1853. 
But  it  is  no  mere  printer's  errour  in  th'e  Keport,  for 
it  appears  again  in  the  annual  Report  forl852; 
and  if,  out  of  fifteen  specimen  corrections,  there 
is  one  which  makes  such  mischief  with  Scrip- 
ture as  this,  what  confidence  can  be  given  to 
the  rest  of  the  work;  or  to  the  assurance  that 
among  24,000  variations  recorded  by  the  Col- 
lator, ^Hhere  is  not  one  which  mars  the  integ- 
rity of  the  text,  or  affects  any  doctrine  or  precept 
of  Scripture?" 

3.  If  there  be  a  book  of  the  Old  Testament 
which  should  be  always  guarded  by  somewhat  of 
note  or  comment,  it  is  unquestionably  that  of  the 
Canticles ;  and  one  would  have  supposed  that  the 
Society  would  have  congratulated  itself  on  the 
possession  of  a  modicum  of  comment,  in  its  old 
summaries,  to  which  no  one  could  object,  and 
which  served  the  important  purpose  of  chastening 
the  imagination  of  all,  and  checking  the  irreve- 
rence of  the  profane,  by  identifying  the  Canticles 
with  the  Apocalypse,  and  with  the  45th  psalm, 
as  referring  to  the  Heavenly  Bridegrom,  and  to 
* ^  the  Bride,  the  Lamb's  wife. ' '  But  alas !  certain 
German  critics  have  found  that  all  this  is  fiction ; 
that  the  poem  is  a  mere  epithalamium,  and  cele- 
brates the  loves  of  Solomon,  and  the  Queen  of 
Sheba,  or  the  daughter  of  Pharaoh;  that  it  has 
little  claim  to  a  place  in  the  Canon,  and  should 
be  exploded  as  the  source  of  texts  for  sermons. 


61 


Archbishop  Leigh  ton  thought  differently.  He 
saw  Christ  in  Canticles  i.  3,  and  doubted  not  that 
his  is  the  name  which  is  '^as  ointment  poured 
forth."  I  rejoice  to  observe  that  the  Committee 
disavow  any  submission  to  the  modern  disciples  of 
Elymas  ;  but  while  their  own  convictions  are  the 
contrary,  is  it  not  amazing  that  they  should  have 
consented  to  surrender  to  such  critics  all  that  could 
have  been  demanded  by  the  worst  of  them?  They 
have  stripped  the  book  of  the  accessories  that 
identified  it  with  Christ,  and  they  have  furnished 
it  with  such  as  sensualize  and  degrade  it.  Let 
the  Society's  own  Bibles  be  compared,  the  old 
with  the  new,  and  let  the  reader  decide,  as  to  the 
meaning  of  the  change,  as  a  commentary  on  the 
^^ Standard"  as  it  stood  before. 


Society's  Old  Bible. 

Cap.  i. 

The  Cluirch's  love  unto 
Christ,  She  confesseth  her 
deformity — and  prayeth  to  be 
directed  to  his  flock.  Christ 
directeth  her  to  the  Shepherds' 
tents:  and  shewing  His  love 
to  her,  giveth  her  gracious 
promises.  The  Church  and 
Christ  congratulate  one  an- 
other. 

Cap.  ii. 

The  mutual  love  of  Christ 
and  His  Church.  The  hope 
and  calling  of  the  Church. 
Christ's  care  of  the  Church. 
The  profession  of  the  Church, 
her  faith  and  hope. 

6 


Society's  New  Bible. 

Ih. 

The  bride  commendeth  her 
beloved,  and  inquireth  where 
he  feedeth  his  flock.  His  an- 
swer.    Their  mutual  love. 


Ih. 

The  graces  of  the  bride  and 
her  beloved,  and  their  delight 
in  each  other.  He  inviteth 
her  to  behold  the  beauties  of 
spring.  His  care  of  her.  Her 
trust  in  him. 


62 


Cap.  iii. 
The    Church's    fight    and 
victory    in  temptation.      The 
Church  glorieth  in  Christ. 

Cap.  iv. 
Christ  setteth  forth  the 
graces  of  the  Church.  He 
showeth  His  love  to  her.  The 
Church  prayeth  to  be  made  fit 
for  His  presence. 

Cap.  V. 

Christ  awaketh  the  Church 
with  His  calHng.  The  Church 
having  a  taste  of  Christ's  love 
is  sick  of  love.  A  description 
of  Christ  by  His  graces. 

Cap.  vi. 
The  Church  professeth  her 
faith  in  Christ.   Christ  show- 
eth the  graces  of  the  Church, 
and  His  love  towards  her. 

Cap.  vii. 

A  further  description  of  the 
Church's  graces.  The  Church 
professeth  her  faith  and  desire. 
Cap.  viii. 

The  love  of  the  Church  to 
Christ.  The  vehemency  of 
love.  The  calling  of  the  Gen- 
tiles. The  Church  prayeth  for 
Christ's  coming. 


Ih. 

The  bride's  despondency. 
The  splendour  of  the  beloved. 

Ih. 

The  beloved  setteth  forth 
the  graces  of  the  bride.  His 
love  for  her.  Her  desire  for 
His  presence. 

lb. 

The  Beloved  in  His  garden. 
The  bride's  love  for  Him.  His 
graces  described. 


The  bride's  confidence  in  the 
beloved.  He  setteth  forth  her 
graces,  and  his  love  for  her. 

lb. 

The  bride's  graces  further 
described.  Her  invitation  to 
the  beloved. 

lb. 

The  delight  of  the  bride  and 
her  beloved  in  each  other. 
Love  strong  as  death.  The 
bride's  desire  in  behalf  of  her 
sister.  She  longeth  for  the 
coming  of  her  beloved. 


Now  if  some  irreverent  caviller  had  taken  out 
his  pencil,  and  written  opposite  to  the  old  sum- 
mary, as  above,  would  not  everybody  have  felt 
that  he  had  made  a  mockery  of  it?  In  my  opin- 
ion, the  Society  has  furnished  such  persons  with  a 
mockery  to  begin  with.     At  any  rate,  there  is  no 


63 

Christ  here;  and  we  say,  with  St.  Augustine, 
^4f  Christ  be  not  tasted  in  the  Old  Testament 
Scripture,  it  hath  no  savour  at  all." 

4.  It  is  astonishing  how,  uniformly,  they  ^^have 
taken  away  the  key  of  knowledge."  Even  in 
Isaiah,  the  ^'Evangelical  prophet,"  the  Com- 
mittee seem  afraid  to  allow  that  Christ  is  the  sum 
and  substance  of  his  song.  To  omit  the  other 
prophets,  then,  let  us  take  Isaiah : 

Society's  Old  Bible.  Society's  New  Bible. 


Cap.  11. 
Isaiah  prophesieth  the  com- 
ing of  Christ's  kingdom. 

Cap.  iv. 
Christ's  kingdom  shall  be  a 
sanctuary. 


lb. 
Tlie  future  prosperity  of 
Zion. 

lb. 
The  future  prosperity  of 


Zion. 

In  the  next  instance  we  have  the  famous  prom- 
ise of  the  Saviour  quoted  by  the  Evangelist,  S. 
Matt.  (i.  23,)  and  here  we  might  fairly  hope  to 
be  indulged  with  the  old  heading. 

Cap.  V.  lb. 

Ahaz  having  liberty  to 
choose  a  sign,  and  refusing  it 
hath,  for  a  sign,  Christ  pro- 
mised. 


Ahaz  refuseth  to  ask  a  sign. 
The  Lord  promiseth  Imma- 
nuel. 


This  amounts  to  the  same  thing  with  believers ; 
but  my  readers  will  recollect  that  this  prophecy  is 
made  by  some  critics  to  have  no  immediate  refer- 
ence to  Christ,  or  to  a  miraculous  conception! 
In  the  next  instance  we  have  the  great  prophecy 
'Tor  unto  us  a  child  is  born,"  etc.  Surely  here 
we  may  have  the  old  heading.     But  no! 


64 


Cap.  ix. 
What  joy  shall  be  in  the 
midst  of  afflictions,  by  tlie  king- 
dom and  birth  of  Christ. 

Cap.  xvi. 
Moab  is  exhorted  to  yield 
obedience    to  Christ's  king- 
dom. 

Cap.  xxviii. 
Christ  the  sure  foundation 
is  promised. 


Ih. 

The  coming  of  Messiah,  and 
the  enlargement  of  His  king- 
dom. 

lb. 

Moab  is  exhorted  to  renew 
his  allegiance  to  the  throne  of 
David. 

lb. 

In  contrast  with  the  refuge 
of  lies,  God  hath  laid  in  Zion 
a  sure  foundation. 

lb. 


Blessings  promised  to  Zion. 


Cap.  xxxii. 
The  blessings  of  Christ'i 
kingdom. 

We  now  come  to  that  j)recioiis  chapter  in  which 
Christ  is  everywhere  so  prominent,  that  it  seems 
almost  irreverent  to  literalize  in  the  least :  ^  ^  The 
wilderness  and  the  solitary  place  shall  he  glad/' 
etc.  The  old  heading  reads  as  if  it  were  dictated 
by  the  exulting  spirit  predicted  in  the  text ;  but 
the  new,  as  if  it  came  from  one  with  eyes  still 
unopened,  and  from  a  tongue  unwilling  to  sing. 
The  one  is  '^springs  of  water,"  the  other  a 
^^  parched  ground." 


Cap.  xxxv. 
The    joyful   flourishing    of 
Christ's  kingdom. 


lb. 

The  future  prosperity  of  Zion 
described. 


In  the  next  instance,  we  have  a  favourite  pas- 
sage, quoted  by  St.  Matthew  in  full,  ^^  Behold  my 
servant  whom  I  uphold,"  etc.  (St.  Matt.  xii. 
18.)  But  still  we  cannot  keep  the  good,  honest 
old  heading. 


65 


Cap.  xlii. 
The  office  of  Christ  graced 
with  meekness  and  constancy. 
God's  promise  unto  him.  An 
exhortation  to  praise  God  for 
His  Gospel. 

Cap.  xlix. 
Christ,  being  sent  to  the 
Jews  complaineth  of  them. 
He  is  sent  to  the  Gentiles  with 
gracious  promises.  God's  love 
is  perpetual  to  His  Church. 
The  ample  restoration  of  the 
Church. 

The  chapter  containing — ^  ^  I  gave  my  back  to 

the  smiters,"  is  next  instanced: 


lb. 

The  servant  of  Jehovah. 
His  character.  God's  promise 
unto  him.  An  exhortation  to 
praise  God  for  his  salvation. 

Ih. 

The  Messiah  and  the  object 
of  his  advent.  God  promiseth 
Him  protection  and  success. 
God's  unchanging  love  to  Zion. 
Her  glorious  enlargement  fore- 
told. 


Cap.  I. 
Christ  sheweth  that  the  de- 
reliction of  the  Jews  is  not  to 
be  imputed  to  Him,  by  His 
ability  to  save,  by  His  obedi- 
ence in  that  work,  and  by  his 
confidence  in  that  assistance. 


lb. 

The  sins  of  Israel  the  cause 
of  their  sufferings,  and  not 
God's  inability  to  save.  God's 
gifts  to  the  Messiah.  His  pa- 
tient endurance  of  reproach. 


In  the  next  instance,  we  have  the  noble  chapter 
which  concludes  with  the  prophecy,  ^^  So  shall  he 
sprinkle  many  nations."  Observe  how  ^^  free  re- 
demption "  and  its  ministers,  in  the  old  heading, 
dwindle  down  to  something  about  a  temporal 
captivity  in  the  new  : 


Cap.  lii. 
Christ  persuadeth  the 
Church  to  believe  His  free  re- 
demption, to  receive  the  minis- 
ters thereof,  to  joy  in  the  power 
thereof,  and  to  free  themselves 
from  bondage.  Christ's  king- 
dom shall  be  exalted. 


6* 


lb. 

Zion  exhorted  to  awake  and 
prepare  for  her  deliverance 
from  captivity.  The  herald  of 
this  event  seen  upon  the  moun- 
tains. The  waste  places  of  Je- 
rusalem called  upon  to  rejoice. 
The  people  commanded  to  de- 
part out  of  bondage.  The  hu- 
miliation and  exaltation  of  the 
Messiah. 


66 


I  am  glad  to  say  the  all-important  53d  chapter 
is  better:    but  the  '^offence  of  the  Cross"  dis- 


appears. 

Cap.  liii. 
The  prophet  complaining 
of  incredulity,  excuseth  the 
scandal  of  the  Cross,  by  the 
benefit  of  His  passion,  and  the 
good  success  thereof. 


Ih. 

The  Messiah  despised  and 
rejected.  His  sufferings  in  our 
behalf.  His  meeloiess  humili- 
ation, and  death.  The  benefits 
of  His  passion. 


In  the  instance  of  ^'  Ho,  every  one  that  thirst- 
eth,  etc.,"  the  improvement  seems  to  me  gratuit- 
ous. 

Cap.  Iv. 
The  prophet,  with  the  pro- 
mises of  Christ,  calleth  to 
faith  and  to  repentance.  The 
happy  success  of  them  that 
believe. 


Cap.  Ivii. 
He   giveth  evangelical  pro- 
mises to  the  penitent. 

Cap.  lix. 
The  damnable  nature  of  sin. 
The  covenant  of  the  Redeemer. 

Cap. Ix. 
The  glory  of  the  Church  in 
the    abundant    access   of  the 
Gentiles. 

Cap.  Ixi. 
The  office  of  Christ.     The 
forwardness   and   blessings   of 
the  faithful. 


Ih. 

A  gracious  invitation  to  ac- 
cept God's  abundant  mercy 
in  the  Messiah.  God's  word 
shall  prosper. 

lb. 

Promises  to  the  humble  and 
contrite. 

lb. 

The  iniquities  of  Israel  have 
separated  them  from  God.  His 
covenant  with  His  peojile. 

lb. 

The  glory  of  the  Lord  upon 
Zion.  The  Gentiles  shall  come 
to  her  light. 

lb. 

The  office  of  the  Messiah. 
The  glorious  results  of  His 
coming. 


The  next  instance  is  that  of  the  chapter  begin- 
ning with — ^'Who  is  this  that  cometh  from 
Edom."     Look  at  the  twain  : 


67 


Cap.  Ixiii. 

Christ  sheweth  who  He  is, 
what  His  victory  over  His  ene- 
mies, and  what  His  mercy  to- 
ward His  Church.  In  His  just 
wrath  He  remembereth  His 
free  mercy.  The  Church  in 
tlieir  prayer,  and  complaint, 
profess  their  faith. 


76. 

The  Messiah's  triumph  over 
the  enemies  of  Zion.  A  song 
of  thanksgiving  to  God  for 
His  goodness  to  Israel.  The 
prayer  of  His  people  in  their 
affliction. 


In  the  next  citation  we  have,  in  the  old  head- 
ing, a  reference  to  original  sin,  which  disappears 
in  the  new. 


Cap.  Ixiv. 
The  Church  prayeth  for  the 
illustration  of  God's  power. 
Celebrating  God's  mercy,  it 
maketh  confession  of  their  na- 
tural corruptions.  It  com- 
plaineth  of  their  affliction. 

Cap.  Ixvi. 
The  glorious  God  will  be 
served  in  humble  sincerity.  He 
comforteth  the  humble  with 
the  marvellous  generation,  and 
with  the  gracious  benefits  of  the 
Church.  God's  severe  judg- 
ments against  the  wicked.  The 
Gentiles  shall  have  an  holy 
Church,  and  see  the  damnation 
of  the  wicked. 


Ih. 

The  prayer  of  God's  people 
for  aid  ;  with  confession  of  their 
unworthiness.  The  desolation 
of  Zion. 


Ih. 

God  delighteth  in  the  con- 
trite spirit ;  but  rejecteth  hy- 
pocrisy. Comfort  and  enlarge- 
ment promised  to  Zion.  An 
exhortation  to  rejoice  therein. 
The  enemies  of  Zion  to  be  de- 
stroyed. The  message  of  sal- 
vation to  be  sent  to  all  nations,^ 
and  the  fruits  thereof.  The* 
fearful  end  of  transgressors. 


After  a  careful  comparison  of  these  two  col- 
umns, I  do  not  think  the  unbiassed  reader  will 
hesitate  long  as  to  which  is  fullest  of  all  that  is 
distinctively  Christian.  The  disciples  were  not 
called  Messianites  at  Antioch,  but  they  were 
called  Christians,  and  the  Jews  are  willing  to 
acknowledge  Messiah,  in  nearly  all  these  prophe- 


68 

cies,  but  not  Christ.  Will  the  Oospel  tlien  be 
the  gainer  when  the  old  Bible  disappears  from  the 
homes  of  America ,  and  when  this  new  and  lifeless 
redaction  is  everywhere  its  substitute?  Will  young 
and  old  see  Christ  any  more  clearly,  from  this 
elaborate  and  sweeping  reform?  Will  the  drift 
and  scope  of  Scripture  be  any  more  obvious? 
Will  not  the  spirit  which  quickeneth  have  given 
place,  in  many  cases,  to  the  letter  which  killeth? 

Now  one  may  fairly  take  the  ground  that  this 
literalization  is  in  fact  a  commentary  which  ob- 
scures and  injures  the  sense.  We  treat  no  other 
poetry  in  this  way,  and  he  who  should  do  so 
would  be  dismissed  with  derision.  Let  us  take 
an  example  from  English  poetry :  the  sublime 
historic  Ode  of  Gray,  which  is  cast  in  the  form 
of  a  prophecy  of  the  English  State,  and  the  dy- 
nasties of  its  sovereigns  ;  and  submit  it  to  the 
two  kinds  of  treatment  which  are  under  review. 

"Weave  the  warp  and  weave  the  woof 
•        The  winding  sheet  of  Edward's  race : 
Give  ample  room  and  verge  enough 

The  characters  of  hell  to  trace. 
Mark  the  year  and  mark  the  night, 
When  Severn  shall  re-echo  with  affright 
The  shrieks  of  death  through  Berkeley's  roofs  that  ring, 
Shrieks  of  aii  agonizing  king. 
She-wolf  of  France,  with  unrelenting  fangs, 

That  tearest  the  bowels  of  thy  mangled  mate, 
From  thee  be  born,  who  o'er  thy  country  hangs. 

The  scourge  of  heaven.     What  terrours  round  him  wait !" 


69 

Now  for  specimens  of  the  two  kinds  of  sum- 
mary ;  and  let  us  see  wliicli  is  the  most  effectual 
commentary  on  the  text,  at  least  in  degrading 
and  stultifying  it.  The  first  shall  be  according 
to  the  confessed  principles  of  a  poetical  argument; 
the  latter,  on  the  principle  of  the  Committee,  viz  : 
that  of  sticking  to  the  letter,  and  to  the  baldest 
inferences  as  to  the  meaning  of  the  same. 

I.  II. 


The  bard  describetb  the  ope- 
ration of  weaving.  The  char- 
acters of  Hell.  A  king  dieth 
of  some  painful  disease.  A 
she-wolf  teareth  out  the  bow- 
els of  a  he-wolf:  and  bringeth 
forth  a  little  wolf.  The  coun- 
try is  infested  with  a  race  of 
wolves.  This  is  the  scourge  of 
heaven  and  is  pronounced  ter- 
rible. 


By  the  figure  of  weaving  a 
picture  in  tapestry,  the  pro- 
phet foreshadoweth  the  his- 
tory of  divers  kings,  Edward 
the  Second  is  cruelly  murder- 
ed in  Berkeley  Castle.  Isabel, 
of  France,  his  adulterous  queen 
and  destroyer,  becomes  the 
mother  of  Edward  the  Third, 
whose  wars  in  her  native  coun- 
try are  seen  to  be  a  just  re- 
tribution. The  terrour  of  his 
triumj)hs. 

Here  are  the  two  kinds  of  summary,  the  old 
and  the  new  !  I  cannot  think  of  any  thing  as 
likely  to  be  answered  to  this,  save  that  I  have 
made  sport  of  the  matter.  To  such  an  objection, 
I  will  borrow  a  reply  from  Bishop  Lowth,  whom 
I  am  not  ashamed  to  have  copied  in  the  legitimate 
use  of  ridicule.  In  exposing  Bishop  Hare's  sys- 
tem of  Hebrew  metres,  he  says  :  ^^  You  may  pos- 
sibly tell  me  that  instead  of  confuting  the  Bish- 
op's system,  I  have  made  a  joke  of  it,  and  turned 
it  into  ridicule.  All  the  apology  which  I  shall 
offer  upon  this  occasion,  if  any  be  thought  needful. 


70 

is  this  :  that  if  an  object,  by  being  placed  in  a 
proper,  a  just  and  a  true  light,  appears  ridiculous, 
he  who  so  placeth  it,  is  not  to  be  blamed ;  the 
fault  is  not  in  him,  but  in  the  object  itself." 

The  poet  Gi-ray,  ^^  were  he  living  at  the  present 
day,"  would  certainly  be  little  thankful  to  any 
one,  who,  under  the  pretext  of  zeal  for  the  beg- 
garly letter  of  his  Ode,  should  so  degrade  its 
spirit.  But  how  much  more  would  the  prophet 
Isaiah  lament  any  treatment  of  his  argument 
which  should  disguise,  or  make  less  obvious,  the 
fact  that  **  he  testified  beforehand  the  sufferings 
of  Christ,  and  the  glory  that  should  follow ! ' ' 
And  are  the  words  of  the  Holy  GtHOST  to  be  treated 
with  a  sort  of  commentary,  which  would  degrade 
an  English  Pindaric  ?  Is  the  Spirit  of  God,  in 
the  Canticles  to  be  exhibited  as  portraying  the 
languishments  of  a  carnal  love,  or  the  attractions 
of  an  earthly  bride,  when  He  uses  such  imagery 
to  dejDict  the  marriage  of  the  Lamb?  Is  the 
Committee  afraid  to  take  the  ground  that  ^  '■  the 
testimony  of  Jesus  is  the  spirit  of  prophecy?" 
And  if  such  be  the  spirit  of  Isaiah  and  the  Can- 
ticles, on  what  principle  do  they  cast  out  the  old 
summaries  which  recognize  it,  and  introduce  a  flat 
and  senseless  literalization  which  ignores  it,  thor- 
oughly ?  I  leave  the  parallel  treatment  of  G-ray,- 
to  the  candid  comparison  of  the  reader,  in  re- 
viewing their  summaries  of  the  Psalms,  and  the 
prophets.     Christ  says:  ^^they  testify  of  him;" 


71 

but,  it  will  be  bard  for  tbe  unlearned  readfer  of 
the  Committee's  ^^Song  of  Songs,"  to  discern 
Christ  in  it,  through  their  glasses  and  glosses,  as 
contrasted  with  what  has  been  set  aside.  In  a 
word,  St.  Cyprian  might  seem  to  have  written  the 
old  summaries,  and  Paul  of  Samosata  the  new : 
or  at  least  the  former  might  be  fairly  attributed 
to  '^Cocceius,  who  saw  Christ  everywhere,"  and 
the  latter  to  ^'  Grotius,  who  saw  Christ  nowhere." 
In  an  article  of  the  Edinburgh  Keview,  to 
which  reference  has  already  been  made,  all  that 
can  be  said  is  said,  in  favour  of  a  thorough  revi- 
sion of  the  English  Bible,  and  in  depreciation  of 
the  noble  work,  as  it  now  stands.  It  is  evident 
that  what  the  reviewer  chiefly  dislikes  in  it,  is  its 
orthodoxy,  which  he  endeavours  to  stigmatize  as 
*^ Calvinism."  Now  the  writer  of  these  pages  is 
no  Calvinist,  yet  he  most  thoroughly  assents  to 
any  Calvinism  that  may  be  found  in  his  Bible, 
and  prays  that  Calvinists  may  have  the  fullest  be- 
nefit of  it.  But  he  only  makes  the  remark  to  call 
attention  to  the  tendency  of  meddling  with  the 
Bible.  Everybody  will  fancy  he  sees  some  Ism  to 
be  amended,  and  the  very  life  and  soul  will  be 
drugged  out  of  the  patient,  in  the  process  of  cure. 
The  Edinburgh  reviewer  praises  an  annotated 
paragraph  Bible  lately  put  forth  by  the  London 
Tract  Society,  which  abounds  in  suggested  amend- 
ments of  the  text,  but  his  remarks  upon  it  are 
very  significant.     He  says  : 


72 

"  The  move  now  taken  by  the  Eeligious  Tract  Society  will 
not  end  in  the  present  publication.  The  more  the  Committee  of 
Management  dare,  the  more  adventurous  will  they  grow  in  daring. 
After  no  very  long  interval  for  the  completion  of  the  Bible,  we 
may  expect  to  see  the  reading  of  the  text  and  of  the  notes 
change  places,  and  a  revised  edition  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures 
appearing  under  the  auspices  of  the  Tract  Society." 

The  reviewer's  words,  mutatis  mutandis ^  entirely- 
express  our  own  convictions  with,  respect  to  the 
new  Standard,  and  the  '' Committee  of  Manage- 
ment" of  the  American  Bible  Society.  ^'The 
more  they  dare  the  more  adventurous  will  they 
grow  in  daring."  The  marks  of  irresolution  and 
timidity  which  are  stamped  on  their  present  effort 
are  striking.  The  French  have  a  proverb  qui 
s' excuse  s' accuse:  and  one  is  forcibly  reminded  of 
it,  in  reading  the  language  in  which  they  seem  to 
forestall  the  remonstrances  of  a  Christian  commu- 
nity. They  declare,  however,  that  '^  they  shrink 
from  no  responsibility,  and  have  no  desire  to  cover 
up  either  what  they  have  done,  or  what  they  have 
left  undone :  the  thing  has  not  been  done  in  a  cor- 
ner." If  then  they  succeed  in  this  venturous  ex- 
periment, where  will  their  courage  make  a  halt  ? 
What  next  ?  It  is  possible,  indeed^  that  the  ex- 
periment will  prove  a  failure,  and  teach  them 
caution,  and  such  is  the  writer's  ardent  hope. 
He  believes  that  the  Christians  of  America  are  not 
yet  ready  for  novelties  in  their  Bibles  ;  and  trusts 
that  the  Society  itself  will  remind  its  Managers  of 
the  solemn  pledges  that  were  given  by  its  found- 


73 

ers,  over  and  above  those  of  the  Constitution,  in 
the  Annual  «Keport  of  1823;,  in  the  following 
words  : 

"  They  earnestly  wish  always  to  remember,  and  that  their 
coadjutors  may  always  remember  the  sole  object  of  the  Bible  So- 
ciety, and  be  ever  and  deeply  sensible  of  the  results  which  their 
labours  may  be  expected  to  produce  under  the  Divine  blessing. 

"  The  SOLE  OBJECT'  is  '  to  promote  a  wider  circulation  of  the 
Holy  Scriptures  without  note  or  comment.'  This  is  the  avowed 
design ;  and  there  is  no  room  for  deception  in  this  case,  or  for 
schemes  different  from  the  dedared  purpose.  As  the  proceedings 
are  public  it  is  impossible  to  wander  from  the  object  of  the  In- 
stitution without  its  being  known ;  and  such  a  departure  when 
known,  wmdd  he  a  death  blow  to  the  Society.  The  utmost  secu- 
rity then  exists  that  no  other  than  the  promotion  of  a  wider 
circulation  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  without  note  or  comment, 
will  be  pursued  as  the  object  of  the  Bible  Society." 

Such  being  the  principles  laid  down  by  the 
venerable  men  who  founded  the  Society,  such 
men  as  Jay,  and  Boudinot,  and  Milnor,  and  such 
being  the  assurances  on  which  the  Society  has  ac- 
cepted the  munificent  gifts  of  the  benevolent ;  let 
my  reader  decide  as  to  the  propriety  of  this  work 
of  the  Committee  ;  a  work  which,  we  are  assured, 
is  banishing  the  old  Bible  from  the  shelves  of 
American  booksellers.  ^'Private  publishers," 
says  one  of  our  newspapers,  ^  ^  are  already  engaged 
in  correcting  the  plates  of  their  various  editions, 
in  conformity  with  this  established  and  acknowl- 
edged standard."  But  by  whom  has  it  been 
established,  and  acknowledged  ?  And  if  it  should 
ever  become  so,  I  leave  with  my  reader  the  de- 
cision of  one  more  practical  question :  will  not 

'  So  printed  in  the  Report. 

T 


u 

the  American  Bible  Society  have  done  the  great 
evil  of  debasing  the  ancient  dignity  and  literary 
merit  of  the  Standard  Bible  ;  and  of  degrading 
the  Evangelical  s]3irit  of  the  work,  as  a  whole,  in 
its  fidelity  to  ^'  Christ  and  Him  Crucified/' 

It  is  instructive  to  compare  with  the  language 
of  the  rationalistic  Edinburgh  Keview,  the  follow- 
ing candid  admissions  from  our  Komish  antagon- 
ists of  the  Dublin  Review.  They,  too,  would  be 
glad  to  see  us  forego  our  old  Bible,  but  on  differ- 
ent grounds  :  they  know  that  when  we  part  with 
it,  or  consent  to  mutilate  it,  we  have  surrendered 
the  strong-hold  of  the  reformed  religion  :  a  strong- 
hold which  they  have  besieged  so  long  in  vain, 
and  in  which  to  be  intrenched  is  to  be  safe  from 
their  artifices  and  enchantments.  With  their  eu- 
logy I  shall  rest  my  cause,  begging  my  reader  to 
ponder  every  word. 

"  Who  will  not  say  that  the  uncommon  beauty  and  marvel- 
lous English  of  the  Bible  is  not  one  of  the  great  strongholds  of 
heresy  in  this  country  ?  It  lives  on  the  ear  like  music  that  can 
never  be  forgotten,  like  the  sound  of  the  church-bell  which  the 
convert  hardly  knows  how  he  can  forego.  Its  felicities  often 
seem  to  be  almost  things  rather  than  mere  words.  It  is  part  of 
the  national  mind,  and  the  anchor  of  national  seriousness.  The 
memory  of  the  dead  passes  into  it.  The  potent  traditions  of 
childhood  are  stereotyped  in  its  verses.  The  power  of  all  the 
gifts  and  trials  of  a  man  is  hidden  beneath  its  words.  It  is 
the  representative  of  his  best  moments,  and  all  that  there  has 
been  about  him,  of  soft,  and  gentle^  and  pure,  and  penitent,  and 
good,  speaks  to  him  forever  out  of  the  English  Bible.  It  is  his 
sacred  thing,  which  doubt  has  never  dimmed,  and  controversy 
never  soiled.  In  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land,  there  is 
not  a  Protestant  with  one  spark  of  righteousness  about  him 
whose  spiritual  biography  is  not  in  his  Saxon  Bible. 


75 

Siicli  language,  from  such  a  source,  seems  to 
me  like  a  benediction  from  the  lips  of  Balaam, 
when  the  Lord  put  a  word  in  his  mouth,  and  he 
said — "  How  goodly  are  thy  tents,  oh  Jacob,  and 
thy  tabernacles,  oh  Israel."  But  truly,  the  times 
are  changed  !  We  are  informed  by  Fuller,  that 
when  the  translators  had  set  forth  their  great 
work,  ^'the  popish  Komanists  much  excepted 
thereat."  Now,  after  two  centuries  of  its  tri- 
umphs, when  even  papists  are  forced  to  confess  it 
the  noblest  and  most  marvellous  buhvark  of  the 
truth  against  which  they  fight,  it  has  come  to 
this ;  that  we  must  address  an  apology  for  it  to 
its  professed  friends,  and  entreat  them,  perhaps 
in  vain,  to  spare  the  heritage  which  our  fathers 
have  left  us,  and  to  let  it  go  down  to  our  children 
as  the  Word  of  God,  of  which  no  jot  or  tittle  need 
be  changed  till  heaven  and  earth  shall  pass  away. 


POSTSCEIPT. 


Since  this  Apology  first  appeared,  the  fact  has  come  gra- 
dually to  light,  that  the  Octavo  Reference  Bible,  which  is 
here  reviewed,  and  which  was  adopted  in  1851  as  the  Standard 
to  which  all  future  Ediiions  were  to  be  conformed,  has  been 
somehow  superseded  by  a  new  Standard,  issued  in  1856, 
embodying  all  the  emendations  of  the  former  work,  but  not 
limited  to  them  only.  After  careful  inquiry,  I  stated  this 
fact  in  the  second  edition  of  this  pamphlet,  on  the  authority 
of  the  Society's  own  Annual  Report  for  185G  :  but  so  damaging 
was  the  exposure,  in  the  view  of  some  of  the  Society's  de- 
fenders, that  the  most  extraordinary  efforts  have  been  made  to 
deny  or  conceal  the  truth,  for  wliich  the  only  excuse  is  the 
supposed  ambiguHy  of  the  Society's  various  accounts  of  the 


re 

matter.  The  unpleasant  turn  thus  given  to  the  question,  is 
one  for  which  the  advocates  of  the  new  Standard  must  be  re- 
sponsible. The  facts  painfully  illustrate  the  adage — U  n'y  a 
que  le  premier  pas  qui  coute,  and  suggest  startling  considerations 
as  to  the  progressive  improvements  so  noiselessly,  but  so  fully 
inaugurated. 

The  facts  now  ascertained  are  these :  that  the  Octavo  Stand- 
ard Bible  of  1851  is  already  superseded  by  the  Imperial 
Quarto  of  1856,  which  is  the  present  Standard  of  the  Society ; 
that  the  Standard  of  1856  is  not  identical  with  that  of  1851, 
though  its  further  emendations  are  represented  as  few ;  that  the 
one  is  sold  for  one  dollar  and  the  other  .for  fifteen  dollars :  and 
that  there  is  an  ambiguity  in  the  Reports,  which  makes  it  doubt- 
ful whether  the  additional  changes  have  been  foisted  into  the 
latter  work,  or  whether  they  are  the  result  of  a  fresh  Eevision 
and  collation.  The  reader  is  respectfully  urged  to  examine  for 
himself  all  the  Society's  Eeports  subsequent  to  1850.  He  will 
find  that  the  facts  are  undeniable  as  here  stated;  and  I  feel 
bound  to  add,  that  I  believe  the  Managers  of  the  Society  are  in- 
capable of  approving  the  line  of  defence  which  has  been  adopted 
by  others  in  their  behalf.  Some  have  even  tried  to  make  it  ap- 
pear that  there  never  was  any  other  Standard  than  the  Quarto 
of  1856,  and  that,  in  the  face  of  the  full  Reports  of  1851  and 
'52,  and  although  presentation  copies  of  the  Octavo  may  be 
found  in  public  Institutions,  with  the  word  "  Standard  "  gilded 
on  the  covers. 

A  personal  inspection  of  the  Quarto,  which  makes  a  su- 
perb complimentary  present,  and  has  been  sent  as  such  to 
the  Queen  of  England,  and  to  other  eminent  individuals,  will 
further  enable  any  one  to  determine  whether  such  a  publication 
was  ever  contemplated  by  the  founders  and  benefactors  of  the 
Society,  as  part  of  their  benevolent  designs  towards  the  spiritu- 
ally destitute. 

Baltimore,  May,  1857. 


Date  Due 

•ACUITY 

f) 

*> 

#  ^     DATE  DUE 

6AYLOIIO 

^NINTKOINU   S.A 

PAMPHLET  BINDER 

Syracuse,  N.  Y. 
Stockton,  Calif. 


BS455  .C87 


An 


apology  for  the  common  English 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary-Speer 


Bible 

Library 


1  ;=!?t'  ''i. 


